Banning bitch and ho: If words are outlawed, only outlaws will have words

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Of course there's no way to ban words in everyday speech, but there *is* a way to get them off recordings of the media giants.  Frankly, I think the Civil Rights organizations have more important fish to fry, but if they wish to make this a priority issue, I wouldn't rule out their chance of having at least some success.
 
Gerald Cohen

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From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Dennis Baron
Sent: Wed 8/8/2007 1:50 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Banning bitch and ho: If words are outlawed, only outlaws will have words



There's a new post on the

Web of Language:

Banning bitch and ho: If words are outlawed, only outlaws will have 
words

Eighteen members of New York's City Council have sponsored a 
resolution to ban the use of bitch and ho as "hateful language [that] 
creates for all women a paradigm of shame and indignity.".... It 
joins an earlier resolution for a moratorium "on the use of the 'N' 
word in New York City."...

There's a growing national movement to ban these three words.  On 
August 7, the Rev. Al Sharpton staged "day of outrage" demonstrations 
in 20 U.S. cities, drawing "dozens of protestors" according to Black 
PR Wire.  As part of his "Decency Initiative," Sharpton, who wants to 
rid the music industry of bitch, ho, and the n-word, has also been 
championing a bill that would withdraw New York State's employee 
pension funds - as much as $3 billion - from media giants like 
Viacom, Vivendi and Time Warner whose music perpetuates the banned 
words...

to find out why banning words isn't likely to succeed, go to

the Web of Language

www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage


Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage

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