In
this world of political constriction, there are words we can no longer say. And
the fact that we never should have used them to begin with is lost on some
folks.
There
are phrases that embody racism, sexism, abuse, and hate. And there’s no getting
around it. We consider some words so insidious that we only refer to them with
the letter they begin with. You know: the F-word, the N-word,the C-word, and so on. However,
spewing these abbreviated words is cheating and just causes the listener to say
it in his or her head, thus defeating the purpose of trying to clean things up.
It’s rather peculiar. I bet if you approached a woman and said, “Hey, C-word,”
you’d wake up with a crowd standing around you and a mouthful of loose teeth.
I’m
not advocating censorship, no. I just want to keep you aware of what you’re
saying and the origin of the words or phrases you use to frame it. Some words
aren’t outwardly hurtful; take, for instance, the avocado.
The
Aztecs considered the avocado an aphrodisiac and called it “ahuacatl,”
which means “testicle.” Come on and have a ball.
I’ve
had the pleasure as a music critic to write about music I love, like gypsy
jazz. But wait: that’s a slight at the expense of the Romani people. Known
mostly as a nomadic race in Europe, the Romani were mistakenly thought to have
first come from Egypt, and have been unfairly characterized as swindlers and
thieves. Not to impugn his work, but as much as I’ve written about Django
Reinhardt and his ilk, I’ve always referred to the music as gypsy jazz. So from
here on out, I’ll be referring to gy–(there’s that
word again) as being Django-esque.
And
I’ve got a feeling that the PC police have their eyes on the phrase “girl
group.” Since we’re on an “-esque” kick, how about
“estrogen-esque”? I’m not sure it’ll translate with
punk and metal, though.
This article appears in Dec 12-18, 2018.
