Isn’t swearing fun? As much as it offends your grandparents and teachers, there’s no better feeling in the world than letting out a big four-letter word when stubbing your toe or eating a good meal. There’s something so gratifying, funny, and familiar about swear words. Of course, context matters, and there is a time and place to use course language, and like anything else is best when used appropriately. When it is used at just the right moment,it’s proven to have actual benefits to your health.
At the end of the day, though, what is a swear? Of course there is a spectrum of severity, from the harshest of words to the ones a 12-year-old could get away with saying. There are absolutely cusses that no one uses anymore, I don’t see anyone saying “gadzooks!” these days, though they absolutely should. Language changes over time, as does people’s manner of expressing their feelings and the rules of what is acceptable to say and what isn’t, almost like a living being it evolves constantly. As we saw ina certain Nicolas Cage hosted Netflix docu-series,tracking the history of swears is genuinely fascinating to research.
RELATED:There Is Absolutely No Reason to Revive the Hays Code
Trying to find the first curse word used in cinema, for this reason, is actually quite difficult.In the beginning of Hollywood, there were no rating systems,no warning to say there might be some naughty language in this film, it just happened, and no one bat an eyelash no matter how shocking that may seem today. That could be because the silent era was seen more as novelty than a legitimate art form that needed standards and legislation, which explains whya lot of films that may have possibly had the first swear in them are also lost.
For all we know, there could bea film released in 1922that drops an F-Bomb right in the beginning. Since tracking the history of swearing is a study that gives you a degree I don’t have, and wading the murky waters of early film history is mostly speculation, what this writer can do is tell you a story of one of the most iconic curse words in classic cinema history, and the fallout that came from it.
While there are silent films that came before it with cusses on their dialogue card, such as 1925’sThe Big Parade, the most commonly accepted answer is 1939’sGone With The Wind,a film as iconic as it is problematic, the big sweeping period drama also has a final line that is still quoted today, and actually caused some shock waves for the time. After watching an extremely tumultuous and honestly quite toxic relationship crumble in this period drama, Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) walks out on Scarlett O’Hara (Vivian Leigh). She asks what would she do without him, and he replies, say it with me:“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
How One Line Changed Censorship Rules
Gasp! Such course language. Certainly the most shocking and offensive part of a movie with whitewashed slavery, sexual assault, a miscarriage caused by domestic violence, and a child getting thrown off a pony and killed on-screen.It’s a controversial movie, especially when looking at it through a modern lens, and all of this I say to clarify that out of everything, the use of the word “damn” in that iconic line was whatgot the film in hot water.
One of the most iconic lines in cinema history,one that has been referenced by dozens of other shows and moviesof all genres and age demographics, almost didn’t make it into the final cut of the film. While the producer,David O. Selznick, skirted around the censors, writerSidney Howardand directorVictor Flemingscrambled together ideas for an alternate line,with some especially choice cutssuch as “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a hoot!” and “The whole thing is a stench in my nostrils.” They eventually settled on the line “Frankly my dear, I just don’t care.” That line may have worked if the delivery was solid, but it wouldn’t have made it intoThe American Film Institute’s 100 Best Lines.
How the story usually goes is that Selznick decided to stick it to the censors, cop the fine, and put the word in the film anyway. That’s not quite the truth, Selznick did still end up having to pay a $5,000 fine, $100,000 for inflation, to put the word in the film,but instead appealed to the censors through a letter you may read here. According to the bookHollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry,it was decided that the line was of such importance to the book and the historical context of the film, that the Motion Picture Association of America decided to amend that particular rule if a particular swear or blaspheme:“Shall be essential and required for portrayal, in proper historical context, of any scene or dialogue based upon historical fact or folklore … or a quotation from a literary work, provided that no such use shall be permitted which is intrinsically objectionable or offends good taste.”
The Hays Code Gave Swear Words Their Weight
This whole story feels pretty odd in the context of it all happening in 1939, well into the era of the talkies, and in that time many of them had used the word “damn”, or any variation of it, way before this one.Draculahad the word damn in 1930,Gold Diggers Of Broadwayhad it in 1929. Once upon a time, damn was not a curse, but just a word. Blasphemy, sure, perhaps a bit more of a mature word but not one that would cost you thousands.
This brings us back to, as most classic film history lessons do, to The Hays Code. In lieu of a proper rating system, or viewer discretion like we have today, the Motion Picture Association then led by William H. Hays decided to create the Motion Picture Production Code, or The Hays Code, that would affect all Hollywood releases from 1934 to 1968.In a previous articleI quickly discussed section 9 regarding their tight restrictions on religious representation, but they also had a section on profanity, section 5:“Pointed profanity (this includes the words, God, Lord, Jesus, Christ — unless used reverently — Hell, S.O.B. damn, Gawd), or every other profane or vulgar expression, however used, is forbidden.“This decision made damn a swear word, among others, it’s what made the word dangerous, and for a time completely disallowed.
Is this what makes any swear so different from regular words? Conjecture?Pointed slurs towards race, sexuality or gender are entirely different, of course, those are words that were given the weight they have by a history of prejudice, violence, and even death. But damn was made a swear by a boardroom of people who wrote up a set of rules to impose on an entire industry, and as a result, made the word more tantalizing. Now, damn isn’t even a swear, it’s something that, unlike other swears, someone can get away with casually writing uncensored in an article. Language is a living being, and film history can be a great mystery, but it is undeniable, despite thoughts on the movie as a whole, that a single quote made a big impact.
