"Ow, my frickin' ears!"?

It surprises me that we aren't allowed to say 'ars.e' (without the additional '.') on Yahoo! Answers, but 'crap' is fine. To me, the latter is more of a 'swear' word...





Censorship's a peculiar thing- I notice in most (all?) television shows broadcast in the US, the 'f' word is simply not allowed (though in the UK it's okay in moderation after 9pm), and I even saw an interview in which a journalist's playful use of the word 'a.ss' was bleeped out. I agree that 'f**k' and the dreaded 'c' word should be kept out of the 'reach' of children as long as possible since the meaning behind them is quite aggressive and coarse, and I know censorship is in place to protect children and such, but surely a silly word like 'ar.se' isn't going to do them any harm?





Are we being a little over-sensitive about certain words? Do you agree with censorship as it is today?





PS: The title of this question is a Simpsons quote, if anyone's wondering.

"Ow, my frickin' ears!"?
Yes, it's strange...you can't call little blue birds..'.t i t s' or a female dog a '*********', or a cigarette a 'f a g'. You can however say wanking, shagging and fanny.
Reply:They are words, that cause unneeded angst among people. It's as if people that get pissed off by these words have an IQ of a 4 year old. I can't remember the last time I told someone to f**k off, but, I am better at bringing them to confused misery with my verbage and analysis.
Reply:i dont understand how crap gets through personally, not that im against it getting through just with the others censored its odd..
Reply:I agree...


I don't know what TV is like in America but in Australia our censorship laws seem pretty reasonable. What irritates me is people trying to blame tv for the way youth is going. Its up to the parents... and swear words.... are just words... are they not? Why can you see people practicaly humping each other or dressed like the nastyest prostitute ever on tv hits in the morning, but you can't hear a swear word on telly till after 8:30. And how come it's ok to watch a graphic murder take place but you cant watch people in the act of intercourse? I mean which is more acceptable... sex (something everybody does) or murder and rape and torture?
Reply:people get away with many things on this site, i learned early on that you can just put a space between the word and it will sail through. You are right about the watershed, 9.00pm but many people on TV think it's OK to slip in their expletives, some perhaps just don't care. Actually what i have a real problem with is not so much TV as the parents who swear at their children, they take that as a sign it's OK to do so, and believe me when you hear a six year old say something really rude you wonder quite what the parents were thinking.





i remember saying a mildly rude word as a kid and was mortified, what had i done, but the reaction was worse i had broken a cardinal rule, children don't use naughty words and you usually got a good telling off from doing so.
Reply:I don't think we're being over sensitive. As a matter of fact, are we being sensitive enough? I've noticed that as time has progressed, cursing and less obscene words have descended to the younger ages. For example, when I was seven, I could hardly say "Shut-up" without getting in trouble, and wasn't "allowed" to say crap or suck until I was like 12. But the other day I heard a seven year-old passionately use the word "suck" as if he did it all the time (which I figure he does). I understand that most of this falls on the parents, but my parents never said the word "suck" and I picked it up just fine. I'm not saying to censor the word "suck", but my point is that more severe words are being used by younger ages. How long will it be until seven year-olds are cursing?