Self-censorship or just editing?

If you do say it, you'll be reporting to Miss Thrashbottom!


This reminds me of the time my granddaughter, then aged about 9, told me proudly that she knew all the internet abbreviations. lol - laughing out loud: gtg - got to go, etc. Then we came to wtf, which she informed me meant 'Why that face?'

All I can say to that is "WTF!"

I keep hearing about this Miss Thrashbottom since I joined this site. Should I have been warned?

Well you should have been warned but there is always such a queue outside her office that you may well be safe for now...

Last seen waiting was was Rick, as usual; Blimp - who has a season ticket; Canadian Spankee - who leaves the office and rejoins that queue again and of course Bendover - who really ought to do as his name suggests

OMG - I walk that way in readiness. Trouble follows me around. I thought WTF was a wrestling title.

No, No, surely the World Thrashing Federation, the trades union to which our dear Miss T belongs 9 and possibly holds a staff of office

Hold on - I can't see that anyone has actually stated what the unacceptable word was, that led to the ejection of visitors. Conservative? Wednesday (for Sheffield United fans)? Failure (for motivational speakers)? Ahmaddiya (for Sunni Muslims)? I guessed it to be the C word (not Chelsea, strangely), but the discussion has centred round the F word (not Failure). I remember once assuring my boss that I never used the word fuck except to describe the sexual act.

Tiptopper's example I've heard as a Second World War story. Sailor's ship docks after a convoy and he goes on leave. When he returns, his friend asks, "Did you have a good time on leave?"

"Did I have a good fucking time on fucking leave?" he replies. "I get fucking leave, I leave the fucking ship, I get on a fucking bus, I go to my fucking home, I open the fucking door, I go up the fucking stairs, and what do I find but my fucking wife in fucking bed with the fucking lodger having intimate relations!"

I think there is a distinction between Good Taste and self-censorship. Good Taste implies a common, conventional idea of what is acceptable - so an artist or an editor may cut something out for fear of offending what most people (or most influential people) consider to be good taste. Self-censorship includes the writer cutting something out for fear of unfavourable reactions, but also a purely personal feeling of being uneasy with what you've written.

Gold star for that man!

Yeah, I agree that it can be overdone in a big way. Remember Ralphie's father in The Christmas Story when dealing with the furnace.

Rugbberrr naappprerlll falaffoppry rorrbbapin

Now there's some swearing...

I won't make an absolute statement, but I'd venture that externally-applied censorship concerning what adults can read, hear and/or view is almost always negative.

Even if censorship applied to adults may be well-intentioned, IMHO there's just an overwhelming potential for it to be abused by unscrupulous parties... --C.K.