B.B. Trotter letter: Movie vulgarity seen in politics
B.B. Trotter, MD, Abilene
It all started when Clark Gable said 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn' in 'Gone With The Wind.' Hollywood and television have been trying to make America more vulgar ever since. They have succeeded.
My mother worked at The La Mode, a ladies shop on the square in Denton. I was in elementary school, three to four blocks away. When I got out of school, I came to her shop and she gave me 15 cents. This was for the movie and popcorn. Four theaters were on the square in Denton at that time. Each theater had an usher who popped the popcorn and watched the theater. This was my baby sitter until mom picked me up at 5 o'clock.
She knew I would not hear nor see anything like what our children and adults are exposed to now. It is so pervasive now that nothing seems to be off limits. Many do not use cable for this reason, but even non-cable TV is more and more 'open.' Shows with Andy Griffith or 'Gunsmoke' wouldn't make it past the producers now.
We had a system that ... if a producer got an X rating, he/she would work to get an R. If an R, they tried to get PG-13. Now, most show statements such as 'some nudity,' 'mild violence.' They are experts with euphemisms.
You don't have to be much of a writer to use the same word as a noun, verb, gerund, exclamation, etc. It's not surprising it's entered our political process.