Maureen Rogers on the Virtues of Dirty Words

Maureen Rogers over at Pink Slip has an inspired post on why, at times, there is not substitute for a well-placed obscene word.  I've talked about Why I Call Them Assholes here, but Maureen makes the best argument I've seen about the emotional wallop factor.  Don't miss the complete post Sugar-Honey-Ice-Tea for gems like this (Maureen is someone who can REALLY write):

The thing is, when it comes to the sheer brilliant pungency of using the impolite words, the substitutes just won't do.

He's acting like an anus? No way.

She's full of excrement. Yawn.

Go have intercourse with yourself. Not quite there.

As for asshole? To quote my dear cousin Barbara who once and only once used the word in front of her exceedingly polite, proper, and genuinely kind mother, my beloved Aunt Margaret, "sometimes you just have to call an asshole an asshole."

Accept no substitutes: jerk don't work.

Good stuff, huh?  I suspect that there will be media outlets that will insist that I use the words jerks (although I was impressed to see that the Today Show labeled me as the author of "THE NO AHOLE  RULE"), and yes, we have had a few media outlets turn us down because of the dirty title.  But offending a certain percentage of people can be a good thing.  I once heard Chris Bangle -- the head of design of BMW -- say that if you don't offend about 20% of your customers and potential customers with what you do, you aren't doing something that is interesting or creative enough. And change of any kind does not happen without making a lot of people squirm.

Comments

[Bob Sutton]

Chuck,

I like your question, and in fact, calling people an "asshole" is one of the most effective ways I know of to turn a person into an asshole (indeed, there is even a lab study at Michigan that shows this, with the weird twist that American males who grew un in the South are likely to become hostile when called assholes, and bumped, than Northern males.). I think it is important to avoid labeling people as assholes, but I also think that when a group or organization has a person who provokes the reaction "wow, what an asshole." That means the rule might be ripe for appplication. And I would also add that this isn't just an us-them thing, when people label themselves as assholes, it is an important first step to change. In fact, I was thinking of your post about the big firm lawyer who started acting like a jerk to you when he realized you weren't in a big firm -- now that is a guy who might just benefit from realizing that he acted like an asshole!

Great comment.

[Chuck Newton]

But, are we being assholes by referring to other types of people as assholes?