more taboo avoidance

[David A. Daniel]

Interesting point here is that the guy got all the way home and then had to look in the mirror to discover he didn’t have any teeth...
DAD


Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      more taboo avoidance
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought HuffPo does not shy from printing full expressions, but that
does not mean individual bloggers may not exercise their own brand of
censorship.

http://goo.gl/QFuqA

> A scorned dentist is facing jail time after surgically removing all of
> her ex-boyfriend's teeth after he dumped her, authorities in London said.
> ...
> "I tried to be professional and detach myself from my emotions," she
> told the news site. "But when I saw him lying there I just thought,
> 'What a b-----d.'"
> ...
> "But when I got home I looked in the mirror and I couldn't f--king
> believe it," he said. "The b--ch had emptied my mouth."

The Telegraph excised the same words, as did the Daily Mirror, and both
did in the same fashion.

http://goo.gl/bbFQO
http://goo.gl/dyjX1
> 'But when I saw him lying there I just thought, "What a b******".'
> ...
> 'But when I got home I looked in the mirror and couldn’t f******
> believe it. The b**** had emptied my mouth.

Sylvia Wood at SFChronicle only did that to the first word, skipping the
second line entirely. [The two dashes are not equal on the page--one is
an m-dash, the other an n-dash.]

http://goo.gl/zqQM5
> "I tried to be professional and detach myself from my emotions," she
> told the Daily Mail. "But when I saw him lying there I just thought,
> 'What a b--d.'"

No cover up in Spanish for the first word, however--although I am not
sure how "offensive" it may be. Note that the second quote is sanitized
in Spanish sources (and other Spanish language sources that I came across).

http://goo.gl/6q6dT
> "Traté de ser profesional y alejarme de mis emociones, pero cuando lo
> vi, pensé, ¡menudo cabrón!", asegura Anna.

http://goo.gl/WDSoR
> "Pero cuando lo vi ahí tumbado pensé 'qué cabrón'", admitió.

I'm still trying to figure out why "bastard", especially translated from
Polish, would raise such difficulties. It would actually make for an
interesting comparison--if you Google the name of the victim, copies of
articles show up in multiple languages.

Same excision in Russian, which just looks bizarre (it may look bizarre
here for entirely unrelated reasons):

http://goo.gl/GR9Cs
> "Я пыталась быть профессионалом и отстраниться от эмоций. Но, когда я
> увидела в кресло, то подумала "Что за у****ок?", - делится женщина.

Everyone seems to know exactly what was said, but they keep avoiding
"bastard".

VS-)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org