Tuesday, April 7, 2009
That Really Sucks.
I do not consider myself to be a prude. I swear regularly and often. Adult content doesn't bother me. Having said all of that, I find it interesting and somewhat sad that the word,"sucks" has become a standard part of our vocabulary today. Kelly Clarkson has a hit pop song called My Life Would Suck Without You. I first learned the term in grade 7-8. It's a reference used to insult people. Guys use it to imply that the person (usually another guy) is gay or a loser, such as "suck me", "you suck", etc. It's a reference to oral sex and is marginally homophobic also. Nevertheless, it's now a part of our culture. On last night's 6:00 news, people commenting on the April snow storms said,"it kinda sucked". So, my question is, why is it necessary to bleep Jon Stewart on cable's The Daily Show but OK to let kids, amongst others, refer to fellatio indirectly on the 6:00 news?
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6 comments:
Steve: When I was in England in 1983 I would use the expression "That sucks!" This was a new one to my English friends, who would respond "Sucks what?" I didn't have an answer for them.
Dan, I often joke with my wife's mom, who's British, that there is English-English & Canadian-English. She'll say somehting,"gives her the pip" and I I have no clue. Your story is an example of the opposite. The one Brit-ism that I like is that they refer to cell phones as "mobile" phones, which I personally think is more accurate than the North American terminology.
I'm sure the Brits probably have a very colourful term for the act which generated the "sucks" term in our culture.
Using "sucks" is kind of like when sportscasters try to be "hip" and say the QB "hooked up" with the WR in football. Umm, guys, that means they had sex. I don't want to see a replay of THAT on the big screen, thank you very much.
You are absolutely right, Steve. I too
am astounded that this reference to oral
sex has become part of our daily language.
For the record, I have never used this term.
I could be wrong, but I seem to remember the
phrase `T&A' in a Freeps headline several
years back as well.
Daryl, I have a vague recollection of this headline as well. To me, it's kind of like people wanting Eubonics to be taught in inner city schools. You shouldn't rationalize poor spelling, grammar, etc. IMO.
The first mainstream use of the "sucks" term I recall was in the late 70's with the "disco sucks" t-shirt parrody of the "Disco Duck" song. Mind you, disco was pretty bad and those of us who were rock n'rollers back then did question the masculinity of the male disco loving crowd but anyway.......
The one that kills me is "money shot" as in "That's the money shot." "Money shot" is a term that originated with porn -- it was the shot of a guy climaxing. But now you'll hear all kinds of people use it. They seem to have no clue where it originated.
Dan, "money shot" is another really good example of what I'm talking about.
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