Angry in the Great White North

From the Ottawa Citizen:

Bell Mobility is selling a series of cellphone ringtones called PimpTones that make light of prostitution and refer to women as "bitches," "skanks" and "hoes."

The short messages can be downloaded from the Bell website for a $2.50 fee and programmed to sound whenever the cellphone rings.

Someone at the company had to pitch this idea, and get it approved.

Who in their right mind thought this was a good idea for the corporate image?

Apparently some of the "tunes" have been removed, but not all:

The company removed a clip entitled No Love For Hoes, in which a receptionist is heard saying that there are "skanks" and "hoes" calling on line one, and another in which a female voice says, "Money, clothes and hoes is all a player cares about."

But Bell continues to offer others in the same PimpTones series, including a clip with angry male voice saying, "Bi-(BEEP)-ch, do I look like a motherfu-(BEEP)-ing track suit?" (A track suit is slang for a low-class person who wears athletic gear.)

"Well, no," a young female voice replies. "Well, quit sweating me, ho!" the man says.

In one clip, a young woman's voice says, "So, Mack-a-ho, your escorts for the Las Vegas Gentleman's Ball have arrived." (Mack is slang for pimp or, in verb form, means to seduce or have sex with.)

Thanks to reporter Glen McGregor for the translations. Honest to God, I had no idea what "Mack-a-ho" meant.

The company gives the standard defence:

A Bell Canada spokeswoman said the clips were offered in response to customer demand.

"We have a lot of different consumers out there who are looking for different things," said Nessa Prendergast. The motif that PimpTones use is "a huge phenomenon," in pop culture, she said.

"There are mainstream TV shows and products that use that language. It's a big part of the culture these days."

Bell says it did not create the content for the PimpTones, but acquired it from a supplier.

OK, to be fair, the PimpTones can be amusing:

The PimpTones do suggest abusive behaviour, however humorous the intent. In one clip, an actor speaking in a deep baritone says, "You have an incoming message from Master Silk Macktastic's hand to your face," which is followed by a slapping sound and a muffled cry.

I admit it. I stifled a laugh when I read that one. But I'm old enough to know not to put that on a cell phone so that anyone anywhere can hear it (certainly the 'motherfu-(BEEP)-ing' PimpTone was way out of line).

Swearing in public has an effect:

Searching for a book at the Los Feliz library recently, Ruzielle Andrade was distracted by the voice of a 10-year-old girl sitting nearby. The girl idly poked at the keyboard of a reference computer while she talked to a boy hovering over her shoulder.

"I'm gonna kick some major ass," she said. Then the girl, her shiny black hair combed straight back and a grin spread across her oval face, launched into a barrage of expletives that sounded more like the pre-show boasts of a gangster rapper than the after-school chat of a fifth-grader.

At bus stops and coffee shops, banks and ballparks, at work and at play, cursing has become a part of everyday language. Cursing, of course, is nothing new. As long as people have stubbed their toes, played golf or gotten drunk, they have invoked the names of holy figures, private acts and other unmentionables. What is new is the casual, common and public use of obscenity. Expressions that might have drawn cold stares 20 years ago now are mere conversational filler. One study of everyday speech reported in the book "Cursing in America" says that about 8% of people's average work vocabulary consists of swear words. In leisure conversations, the crude word count climbs to 13%.

I know people who use curse words like commas.

[Timothy Jay, a professor of psychology at North Adams State College in Massachusetts] has recorded conversations of kids at camp, workers in mail rooms, students in cafeterias, pedestrians on street corners, even customers at Kmart. His language-tracking studies show that the use of obscenity is no longer related to class or level of education, he said. The biggest increase has been recorded among two groups: children and women.

So I'm not blaming Bell Mobility for this -- it has been going on for a long time (this article was written in 1999), but it doesn't mean that Bell Mobility has to become part of the problem either. I don't want Bell Mobility to become defacto parents for my children -- I'll teach them what language is appropriate to use. But I don't need Bell Mobility undermining my efforts either. As a consumer, I can tell Bell I won't buy their products, but as long as there are teenagers and adults cursing a blue streak and with money to spend, Bell Mobility won't care much for my concerns.

At the end of the day, Bell Mobility and companies like it have to put aside the profits for a moment and consider their roles as corporate citizens. A corporation is made up of individuals, many of them parents. Maybe they need to imagine being a dad on the bus when their daughter hears a PimpTone. If I was in the vicinity of a young person, I would have the decency and consideration to watch my language -- it's just good manners. I'd like to think parents working at Bell Mobility would appreciate that effort on my part. Now how about a little bit of consideration from Bell Mobility?

Remember that 10-year-old girl swearing in the library?

The 10-year-old girl whose rant astonished library patrons told Andrade that she does not intend to stop swearing in public or anywhere else.

Leaning against a chair with a fist planted on her hip, she said that she's sorry she offended people around her but that she doesn't understand why swearing is such a big deal.

"My dad tells me not to swear, but I don't care," she said. "People just get me mad."

Parenting is hard enough without Bell Mobility and their PimpTones.

[An opinion about vulgarity in conversation at the Volokh Conspiracy.]

Update: Some folks have commented that I seem to be an old fogie when it comes to this. Probably. But consider this aspect of the swearing cell phone.

If I swear, I've made a conscious decision to do so. However, if I program my cellphone to swear, then I've essentially made it so that you swear when you call me.

If I call your phone and it has a PimpTone, and I cause people in your vicinity offense, I'm going to be very upset. I did not call you with the intention to swear at everyone nearby. You've essentially co-opted me into contributing to the verbal pollution that you don't seem to mind spewing.

It's not just about being courteous to everyone nearby who, let's face it, have all heard these words before.

It's about being courteous to anyone who might call you -- your mother, your spouse, your kids. Would you ask your mother to say "Bi-(BEEP)-ch, do I look like a motherfu-(BEEP)-ing track suit?" loudly in public in order to get your attention? I don't think so. What do you think she would say if she realized that whenever she called you, that's what people heard?

Maybe I am an old fogie. But I'm an old fogie who still respects his mom.