Are there secrets in your search history?
We sometimes submit search queries that we wouldn’t admit to friends. And by looking at our searches, researchers can unearth things we’d rather keep hidden, including covert racism and sexual predilections.
Linguist Daniel …
TW: sexual assault
Should we use the word rape when it’s not about actual rape?
What about retarded or gay?
The meanings of words can change, but sometimes this means conflict as we decide what’s okay and what’s not …
The middle finger was in the news this week as M.I.A. flipped the bird during a US Super Bowl halftime performance.
What is it about this gesture that makes it obscene? How long has it been around? And what else …
SlutWalk is hitting Perth this week to raise awareness of the tendency to blame the victims of sexual assault.
And the word slut is making even some participants uncomfortable. What’s behind the term? Where does it come from, and can …
On every frazzled parent’s reading list is a new children’s book: Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach.
Perhaps you wouldn’t read it to a child, but you might wonder where the f-word comes from, and why we can …
Using bad language in Victoria could cost you.
Swearing in public is already illegal, but soon police will have the power to issue on-the-spot fines instead of taking the matter to court, which will make enforcement more likely. Where’s the …
The King’s Speech has won the Oscar for Best Picture, and this has brought attention to the issue of speech disfluency.
What causes stammering, and how do people learn to manage it? And how affected was the King’s speech, anyway?…
Opposition leader Tony Abbott copped some flak when he referred to a soldier’s death in Afghanistan using a certain well-known philosophical homily: “Shit happens.”
How did this phrase enter the lexicon, and what impact has it had?
It’s all happening …
CW: homophobic slur
This month, Canadian radio banned the Dire Straits song ‘Money for Nothing’ over an anti-gay slur in its lyrics.
Has the f-slur now become as unacceptable as other swear words? And how has the word changed since …
NewSouth Books is planning to release a version of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn with the n-word removed.
Is it political correctness run amok, or a rather good idea? The book has found itself at the centre of controversy ever since …
© 2024 Talk the Talk
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑