Yes

by Jenny Tolley

Created on: June 18, 2009   Last Updated: October 13, 2009

The late comedian George Carlin was famous for his stance on free speech. Back in the 1970s, he made waves when he performed a routine called "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television". That historic monologue led to future routines that clearly laid out how Carlin felt about the English language. He believed that words are neutral and only as powerful as human beings want to make them. After careful consideration, I have to agree with George Carlin. There's really no such thing as a "bad word". And if there's no such thing as a "bad word", certainly all words can be used in a way that isn't insulting.

Take, for instance, the word "fag". According to Dictionary.com, the word "fag" has several meanings. One meaning of fag is to tire or weary by labor. Another meaning is nautical in origin, referring to fraying or unlayering the end of a rope. Fag is also a slang term for a cigarette. It's not until further down the list that the reader first encounters the potentially offensive meaning of fag, as a shortened version of the word faggot. Aha! But look up the word faggot, and the first definition you'll come across is an alternative spelling of the word fagot, which means a bundle of sticks. The second definition is the potentially offensive term for a male homosexual. The word fag has several meanings, some of them neutral, a couple of them potentially positive, and only one of them potentially offensive. If only one meaning for the word fag is offensive, why should we ban use of the word altogether?

Words take on different meanings that human beings choose to assign to them. Once upon a time, the definition of the word fag had nothing at all to do with a person's sexual orientation. But language is always evolving and, at some point, fag turned into a so-called "bad word". The same thing happened to the word "gay". Forty years ago, gay meant happy and cheerful. Today, gay is another word for homosexual. The word gay can even be used to mean something is stupid or silly. Very few people seem to use it as a way to describe something happy or cheerful anymore.

But if a word's meaning can evolve to mean something offensive, doesn't it stand to reason that the word's meaning can also evolve to mean something good? I think it does. In fact, I can even think of an example. Back in the 1980s, the word "bad" somehow evolved in meaning so that it started to be a slang term for something excellent or first rate. Until that time, the word bad had about 35 different meanings, all of which were negative. At some point, a 36th definition came along and people commonly started to use the word "bad" to describe something unbelievably good. The same thing happened with the word "cool". At one point, "cool" meant that something was slightly cold. Now describing something as "cool" can mean that it's slightly cold or it can mean it's interesting, innovative, or "hip"... yet another slang term derived from a formerly neutral word.

Then there are words that are maligned simply because they sound like a derogatory word. The word "niggardly" is correctly defined as "stingy or miserly". Back in 1999, Washington, DC mayor Anthony Williams famously allowed top aide David Howard to resign after someone complained about his correct use of the word "niggardly" to describe how he would manage tight funding. Another staffer apparently thought the word "niggardly" was a racial epithet. However, the word "niggardly" only sounds similar to the racist term "nigger". Correctly used, "niggardly" does not have any racial connotations whatsoever.

I believe that people are responsible for the meanings they attach to words. The words themselves are neutral. I could go to a foreign country and use the word "fag". Chances are, the person on the receiving end of my communication wouldn't be offended because he or she had not attached a meaning to that word. On the other hand, I could call one of my male friends a fag and he might be offended. Why? Because as an English speaker, he knows the word has a derogatory slang meaning attached to it. I could witness two homosexual men talking to each other, lightheartedly referring to each other as fags, and not taking any offense whatsoever. Why? Because perhaps the two homosexual men don't mean anything derogatory by the word's use.

Speaking English has become a very complicated endeavor. Some people are allowed to use words that other people aren't. Sometimes people take offense where no offense was intended. Sometimes people don't get offended when a communicator meant to offend. What it really comes down to is that words are just tools of communication and they are subject to misuse. There is no such thing as an offensive word. There are only people who intend to be offensive and use words as their weapons. And those people are the ones we should really be concerned about, not the specific words themselves.

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