Bad Words

Published by

Clarissa

May 23, 2014

At the spinning class today, everybody was older than me. This is important for the story, so please keep it in mind.

Music is very important for spinning. There is no spinning without a good soundtrack. Today’s instructor, however, was not letting us hear any music. The moment we would get into a groove, she’d say, “No, we can’t listen to this. There is a bad word in this song.”

So she’d interrupt the song and start searching for a new one only to discover that the new song had two bad words.

This torture continued for 20 minutes in spite of every student’s insistence that at the age of 50 (48, 42, 38, etc) we could deal with a few bad words.

Finally, a student decided enough was enough.

“Fuck!” she yelled. “Here, I said it! Fuck! Can we just listen to the fucking music already?”

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12 responses to “Bad Words”

musteryou

May 23, 2014

I used to love it when my dojo played the lyrics, “I don’t want a man with a brain, I want a man with a gun like John Wayne.”

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Sister

May 23, 2014

Ha! Were you the student?

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 23, 2014
  
  No, I’m an immigrant so I just observe. 🙂
  
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musteryou

May 23, 2014

Another gym favorite:

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Evelina Anville

May 23, 2014

I think this might be related to the larger “trigger warning” cultural fiasco. I can’t remember where I read it exactly but I do remember reading an online discussion about “feminists” objecting to songs during a spinning class. I would post the link but am too tired to track it down. But it was a fairly recent and fairly prominent discussion.

I understand the impulses behind “trigger warnings” and behind wanting to avoid “bad words”. These impulses come from a good place: a culture of etiquette, a desire to make people comfortable, a desire to help people feel safe and accepted etc etc. But it really has become a parody of itself. And I’m the poster child for Miss Liberal Lefty. I happily privilege check, support affirmative action, and truly believe in political correctness. But I really am dumbfounded and saddened by this latest trigger warning movement.

Apparently there is discussion suggesting the Virginia Woolf’s _Mrs. Dalloway_ should come with a “trigger warning” for suicide. As someone who teaches _Mrs. Dalloway_ regularly, I find this insane. I could go on and on about this subject. But just realized I’m veering way off course here. So I will stop. 🙂

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musteryou

May 23, 2014

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musteryou

May 23, 2014

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cliff arroyo

May 24, 2014

I have a weakness for the classics

lyrics

I go out late last night, in the rain and sleet
Tryin’ to find a butcher togrind my meat
Yes I’m lookin’ for a butcher
He must be long and tall
If he want to grind my meat
Cause I’m wild about my meat balls

I know a good man but he’s so doggone stout
Before he starts to grindin’ he’s all worn out
Somebody send me a butcher
He must be long and tall
If he want to grind my meat
Cause I’m wild about my meat balls

He can clean my fish, even pick my crabs
But what I need is my meat ground bad
Yes I’m lookin’ for a butcher
He must be long and tall
If he want to grind my meat
Cause I’m wild about my meat balls

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cliff arroyo

May 24, 2014

And now Blind Boy Fuller to ask the musical question “What’s that smell like fish?”

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JT

May 24, 2014

Now that was funny. 🙂

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el

May 24, 2014

She should have used children’s songs from Disney’s movies, for instance. “Frozen”, “Raspunzel” and so on are famous among teens and some adults too.

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Rebecca Schuman

May 25, 2014

That happens in my spinning class, too, but my teacher always says: “This class has two curses in it! Sorry in advance!” And everyone just yells back “FINE!” and then silently yells “STOP TRYING TO KILL US.” I have to say, though, that the only reason I am at all familiar with today’s Top 40 music is because of spin class. I’ll be out with my husband and some infernal Ke$ha song will come on, and he’ll be blissfully unaware of it, and I’ll go, “Oh, I know this song from spin class THIS PLACE ABOUT TO BLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW” and then he looks at me like we have never met.

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