Lack of Media Coverage: Harmful Words

Harmful Words

The media fails to cover the way America's youth uses their words. Teens use words very lightly, usually unaware of the effect they can have on others. Being a teen myself, I often hear my peers refer to something as being "gay", "retarded", or "queer", or playfully calling a classmate a "fag". Earlier in my adolescence, I had fallen under the influence of my peers and even used some of these words myself. I then realized the flaw in my ways and am now opposed to the use of such remarks. These words are offensive and I think the problem is that the teens who use them don't realize that these words can hurt someone's feelings. I also think that part of the issue is that these kids don't care if they're hurting someone's feelings. If they are not close friends with someone who is homosexual or has special needs, then they think "I'm not hurting anyone by saying this," but in actuality, they may have a friend who is gay but is afraid to come out because they hear their friends using these words in a negative fashion. Also, when one person uses the words, then the rest of their friends begin to say them too, and then all kinds of people are aying them and ultimately these words will offend someone even if the speaker believes they're not hurting anyone.

I feel that the media is somewhat oblivious to this issue. You never see a newscast about teens using harmful words. Personally, I think this issue should be covered in the news. I think it could be just the reality check that some teens need to get their speech in order. However, a simple newscast would not be enough to change the view of all teens guilty of using these harmful words. I believe that teens who oppose such language would need to ban together and start a campaign to stop the use of hurtful utterances and possibly that would get the media's attention enough for something to actually be done about this problem in our society.


Blogs that discuss this issue:
http://atticfantasist.blogspot.com/2008/03/gays-not-word-or-maybe-it-is.html
In this blog, Zoe Williams discusses the use of the word "gay" in today's society and how the meaning has changed from "homosexual" to "strange".

http://beetqueen.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/the-insult-of-the-day/
This blog is written by a high school teacher who often hears students use the word "gay" to describe assignments. She says that since she is not aware of how to "combat this problem" that she is just planning on waiting until the word goes out of fashion.


http://www.landofsavages.com/2008/03/gay-most-common-insult-amongst-children.html
This blog discusses the fact that "gay" could be the most common word used among teens. It also says how teachers are having trouble controlling the use of the word.


http://ahudenglish102.blogspot.com/2008/03/transformation-of-word-retard_12.html
The author of this blog talks about how the word "retard" has evolved over the years. She talks about the history of the word and how it has been used over the years.

This video has two people talking about words used frequently in our society and their appropriateness, particularly the use of the word "retarded":