Bawdy Language

Rape continues to be in the news lately. So it’s incumbent on us to say a few words about it.

Let’s begin with a few hard facts.

"Rape" is not very user-friendly. It’s not the kind of word you use in mixed conversation or bring home to mother. Though it is probably the most potent and incendiary of the four letter words, it has neither appeared on a list of banned words, nor has it ever been bleeped from the media. The Supreme Court has OK'd its use, even in a crowded theater.

It's also a rigid motherfucker — noncompliant to the whims of its user and highly inflexible in its meaning. It doesn't give the user much wiggle room in its employment. Like Horton, the word means what it says and says what it means.

Rape does not have any of the enterprising spirit or the freewheeling nature of, say, the word "fuck." Now that's a word that is not only incredibly pliant and playful but one with the ability to convey a variety of sentiments by a mere shift in intonation. Rape should only have it so good.

Fuck's Versatility:

I'll take fuck any day over rape. How better to describe the current discussion about rape, than "outfuckingrageous?"

Doctor C. Bawdy