READ TODAY'S STORIES AND E-EDITION SUBSCRIBE |  CONTACT US |  SIGN IN

Print story only Print story with comments Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest
B--- forewarned: Language ahead.
Published: 3/22/2012 9:42 AM
Last Modified: 3/22/2012 3:12 PM

I greatly admire Kristin Chenoweth’s talents as a singer and comedienne.

And in the conversations we’ve had over the years – from 1999, when she was nominated for and later won a Tony Award for “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” to her being inducted last year into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame – I have found her to be a very intelligent, very determined and very sincere woman.

But I still can’t quite bring myself to say – or to type out here, even – the original title of her latest TV project, the cartoonish soap opera that now goes by the acronym “GCB.”

That’s just the way I am. And it would seem that I am one of an increasingly rare group.

Scott Andrews, a professor of American and American Indian literature at California State University Northridge (and my roommate in college, lo these many years ago), write a blog called “Seeing Things,” that takes slightly academic and wryly humorous look at the convulsions of American popular culture.

His most recent entry is about the sudden prevalence of … shall we call it “The B Word” in TV shows. (WARNING: One of the ways Andrews makes his point is with a quote from a Kurt Vonnegut story that is uncensored.)

Of course the word itself has been around for years – from its benign use to identify female canines to serving as the title of songs by the Rolling Stones and Elton John to being an apparently indispensable term in rap music.

Now it’s become the popular pejorative of the season. But, as Andrews writes, if the use of this word loses its ability to shock, becomes just another part of our mainstream conversation, does that mean all the hate and contempt that word has carried for so long is now equally as acceptable?



Reader Comments 2 Total
yoo hoo (11 months ago)
Why are you wasting my time with this?
208228 (11 months ago)
Thanks, Mr. Watts. You're not alone.
2 comments displayed


To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.

ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

Subscribe to this blog


Archive

 
James D. Watts Jr's Blog Archive:

2/2013  1/2013  12/2012  11/2012  10/2012  9/2012  
8/2012  7/2012  6/2012  5/2012  4/2012  3/2012  
2/2012  1/2012  12/2011  11/2011  10/2011  9/2011  
8/2011  7/2011  6/2011  5/2011  4/2011  3/2011  
2/2011  1/2011  12/2010  11/2010  10/2010  9/2010  
8/2010  7/2010  6/2010  5/2010  4/2010  3/2010  
2/2010  1/2010  12/2009  11/2009  10/2009  9/2009  
8/2009  7/2009  6/2009  5/2009  4/2009  3/2009  
2/2009  1/2009  12/2008  11/2008  10/2008  9/2008  
8/2008  7/2008  6/2008  5/2008  4/2008  








Home | Contact Us | Search | Subscribe | Customer Service | About | Advertise | Privacy
Copyright © 2013, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.