It is by no means clear to me which words are acceptable in what social circumstances. I mean words from bloody southward. It was, 20 years ago, the case that in the grown-up surroundings of The Spectator it was all right to use for good reason strong language that the BBC could not abide. Now, on the stroke of 9 p.m., television makes fuck the most common of lexical choices. My husband doesn’t give a damn, but is shocked on my behalf.
It doesn’t have to be 9 p.m. Shortly after 10 the other morning a rather sincere young person on Woman’s Hour was advocating our women’s standing up to verbal harassment by telling off the perpetrators. ‘It isn’t just “Show us your tits”,’ said the young person. No, indeed, though wasn’t she practising what she reprehended by blasting thus our children’s school-holiday ears?
On the genuinely amusing Absolutely Fabulous, Patsy referred to Saffy as a bit of flap-snot.
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