It was a fine evening in the campus with the trees swinging along with the wind and squirrels jumping all over the place as we sat together to have our evening snack. As usual, something led to another and soon we found ourselves divided into two groups debating about how is it wrong to use cuss words that are offending to the women. As the discussion went on we touched all the different perspectives of how did it generate, how is it indignifying, why should it be stopped and more similar themes. As the discussion went on even further, one of my friends came up with an idea of taking a pledge to now only say the swear words with men’s name in the place of women. Another came up with another brilliant idea of using a word which is common to both the genders and in this way it won’t be objectifying just one but will be treating both of them as “equals”. They kept discussing but this left me wondering- is this the solution? I mean, is turning the words around or using a word depicting a body part common to both genders the solution to this issue? I don’t think so.
I completely resonate with the idea of these words objectifying a women’s sexuality but I also believe that by replacing the women with men would not make it any better. Some years back a live show created a big controversy. The young people on stage very brutally making fun of each other’s skin colour, nationality, gender and what not and all of this was so funny that they couldn’t even manage to stand straight while speaking. Everyone was rolling over with laughter. Well, to their critics it was said that it was not intended to hurt anyone and it was all said in good humor and was supposed to be entertaining. Today, swearing is no more only for rage and anger. These words have become our expression for everything – excitement, happiness, shock, surprise, anger, fear and what not. The other day I went to watch a match and it wasn’t much surprising for me to see the young players targeting cuss words at each other. Social media is filled with filthy comments on anything and everything, even if it’s not even remotely related to them!
I see ourselves reaching the times where everyone is so frustrated with everything and anything that the logical reasoning behind actions has evaporated and we find solace and peace in barbarously thrashing each other’s self-respect trying to make our mark on the other. Exerting our superiority over others -and of course, this being the easiest of all the other ways- has become the road to inner satisfaction! Even if we replace the females with the males, it won’t solve the problem and it would definitely not burn out this fire of hatred and violence gaining heat in our hearts. We need to realize that we have been given this gift of language to propagate love, peace and harmony. And its high time we realize the importance of our use of words.