Toilet words.
I was recently talking to a lady who teaches little kids/ pre-school teacher. Among the various topics that came up was "toilet words". She told me that she heard some of her kids using words like doody and pishy, but that they were shockingly using such foul language outside the friendly confines of the toilet area. She told them what we have all been told one time or another: "Kids, those are toilet words and you should only say that stuff in the bathroom." I have been reprimanded for using toilet words in unauthorized places as recently as yesterday, and I am 25; clearly this is an ongoing issue for some of us.
But something funny happened in the evolution of the "toilet words" category. As time went on for us as kids, and as we got older, we learned other words. We learned the F curse and the S curse, and we learned about the word a-hole and B-I-T-C-H. And if any one of us dared to utter one of these words in front of an authority figure, we would 1) have our mouths washed out with soap (or threatened) and 2) told that these words were "toilet words" or words for a "potty mouth".
Now this is where I get confused. When did curse words mesh with words like doody and pishy and get thrown in the toilet words category. Are there a bunch of people that specifically go into a bathroom so that they can finally scream out curse words? Hey, Mother Effers!!! So happy we can curse now that we are at the urinal!!! You Sons of Bitches!!! Fun to meet you here in the ole' bathroom!
I do have a theory about how this happened. The "S" curse is used to describe bowel movements, among other things. This is probably how curse words moved into the toilet word category. Once the S curse got into this category, the other curses followed suit. And now...we have teachers/parents/mentors telling kids all over the place that they should go to the bathroom and curse to their hearts' content. See you in the Effing bathroom.
But something funny happened in the evolution of the "toilet words" category. As time went on for us as kids, and as we got older, we learned other words. We learned the F curse and the S curse, and we learned about the word a-hole and B-I-T-C-H. And if any one of us dared to utter one of these words in front of an authority figure, we would 1) have our mouths washed out with soap (or threatened) and 2) told that these words were "toilet words" or words for a "potty mouth".
Now this is where I get confused. When did curse words mesh with words like doody and pishy and get thrown in the toilet words category. Are there a bunch of people that specifically go into a bathroom so that they can finally scream out curse words? Hey, Mother Effers!!! So happy we can curse now that we are at the urinal!!! You Sons of Bitches!!! Fun to meet you here in the ole' bathroom!
I do have a theory about how this happened. The "S" curse is used to describe bowel movements, among other things. This is probably how curse words moved into the toilet word category. Once the S curse got into this category, the other curses followed suit. And now...we have teachers/parents/mentors telling kids all over the place that they should go to the bathroom and curse to their hearts' content. See you in the Effing bathroom.
posted by The Fades @ 7:56 PM
3 Comments:
At 12:36 PM,
Anonymous said…
I definitly agree with that, where if you need to curse use the bathroom. Like the curse word became a bowel movement of its own. I personally take advantage of such times more so when im angry with someone. I just shove somebody in the bathroom and start cursing at them until its out of the system.
At 1:59 PM,
Frum From Booth said…
Great Blog! but since i'm not in the bathroom I can't really crique your post completely. I'm a big fan of the fadesssssss blog.
At 12:42 PM,
Av said…
When I was in 1st or 2nd grade, our teacher told us that since Hebrew was "lashon hakodesh" we shouldn't speak it in the bathroom, as this is degrading to the holiness of the language. One kid asked "what about Israelis that only speak Hebrew? Can they not speak at all in the bathroom?" When the teacher stupidly answered that "no, they shouldn't" this child brilliantly asked, "so then where do they say bathroom words?"
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