Schwarzenegger Coverage Dances Around Dreaded 'B' Word
Far from the madding, Bakersfield crowd, the Toronto Sun ponders an interesting semantic aspect of today’s Arnold Schwarzenegger love child media coverage. Namely, why is the word “bastard” being deleted from Yahoo! Answers and-or generally absent from reports related to the Governator’s secret son?
The paper combed through today’s 3,500+ Schwarzenegger news items and found just a few “fringe” outlets using the word. An expert tells the paper the term has been turned upside down since its 1235 origins, and is now more commonly used to refer to the dad rather than any illegitimate offspring. Ironic, considering that “bastard” is one of the earliest swear words learned by children:
“We’ve recorded it as early as age three,” the scientist said from his Massachusetts home. It’s also in the top 10 or 15 swear words men use… The researcher says it tipped into the dark side of conversations after the Second World War.
The Sun has no such dark-side problems however, titling their Op Ed “What Do We Call This Poor ‘Bastard’?” To paraphrase a famous Arnold line from Total Recall, consider this a discourse.
