President Joe Biden visits Fisherman’s Wharf in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Oct. 5.
Photo:
Saul Young/Associated Press
There he was, on the hurricane-ravaged streets of Fort Myers Beach, Fla., the president of the United States, saying: No one effs with a Biden. I don’t use quotation marks because he used an unprintable word my mother taught me is “vulgar.”
In ancient Rome, where formal Latin was spoken only by the educated class and written by the likes of Cicero, the street language was called the “vulgate” because it was the common tongue. By the fourth century, there was even a Bible translation in the vulgate.
Many of us use Mr. Biden’s word. Such use is not new. Think of the
Cole Porter
1934 song, “Anything Goes”: “Good authors too, who once knew better words / Now only use four-letter words / Writing prose / Anything goes.”
Vulgarity seems to be a partner with anger, stress or alcohol. Language can be location-debased, so locker rooms and athletic fields, where defeat lurks, are sites for the vulgar outburst that signals frustration and bitterness. Winners can afford to be generous in tone and careful in speech. Losers swear as the cameras look away.
House Speaker
the highest-ranking woman in our government, has shown impatience, albeit in a mild form, but she has firm control on her use of the vulgar in public. Vice President
has thus far avoided public use of vulgarities. Is it possible women who have become successful in the knife-edged political world don’t need to use bad words to reinforce their power? They don’t pretend to be something they’re not, they don’t put on macho airs.
It was “Joe” Biden and not President Biden who used the vulgar word, and he knew what he was doing. He was sending the “tough Joe” message, underscoring his roots as a kid from Scranton, Pa., who scaled the Mount Everest of…
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