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ABSTRACT
During a televised ceremony celebrating the Boston Marathon bombing heroes, Red Sox star David Ortiz used profanity in his unscripted message of support for the city. The rhetorical significance of this incident lies not just with his language, but also the reactions to it. That many deemed Ortiz's profanity inoffensive—even appropriate—prompts a reconsideration of profanity's role in civic rhetoric. This essay examines the public engagements with Ortiz's language and argues for a reconsideration of appropriate rhetorical responses to extraordinary situations.
Acknowledgement
The author wishes to thank Celeste Condit, the editor, the anonymous reviewers, and the editorial assistant for their encouragement and suggestions.
Notes
1 Jason Mastrodonato, “Boston Stronger: Sox Pay Tribute to Victims,” MLB, April 20, 2013, http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130420&content_id=45300030.
2 Mark Townsend, “David Ortiz Punctuates Red Sox Pregame Ceremony with Strong Statement, Language,” Yahoo! Sports: Big League Stew, April 20, 2013, http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/david-ortiz-punctuates-red-sox-pregame-ceremony-strong-183311162--mlb.html.
3 Mastrodonato, “Boston Stronger.”
4 The profanity was bleeped out by some, but not all, of the stations which carried the broadcast. See Elizabeth Titus, “FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Tweets on David Ortiz F-bomb,” Polico, April 20, 2013, http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/fcc-julius-genachowski-david-ortiz-twitter-90376.html. The uncensored video went viral, and the clip aired repeatedly on other broadcasts—sometimes censored, sometimes not. Even when bleeped, Ortiz's profanity is readily discernible.
5 FCC (@FCC), “David Ortiz Spoke from the Heart,” Twitter, April 20, 2013, https://twitter.com/fcc/status/325714412143013888.
6 For example, the FCC did not fine the ABC network for an uncensored broadcast of Saving Private Ryan, which contains numerous profanities. The FCC adjudicated there was a clear difference between depicting soldiers’ use of profanity in wartime as a means of establishing context and authenticity, and celebrities shouting profanities during a live broadcast. See Joan Biskupic, “Fight over TV Indecency Is on High Court's Doorstep,” USA Today, October 25, 2007, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-24-dirtywords_N.htm.
7 Josh Hyber, “Barack Obama Approves David Ortiz Dropping the ‘F’ Bomb, Calls It ‘Proud’ Moment,” The Sporting News, March 22, 2016, http://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/barack-obama-david-ortiz-f-bomb-boston-marathon-red-sox-mlb-cuba-rays/qb9mcyhpl1oq1htgqi2wgrw8f.
8 Nick O’Malley, “F-bomb Fallout: Viewer Complaints to the FCC over David Ortiz's Foul Language Following Marathon Bombings,” Masslive, July 5, 2013, http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2013/07/f-bomb_fallout_viewer_complain.html.
9 See Howard Bryant, The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism (Boston: Beacon Press, 2018); and Karen L. Hartman, “The New Rhetorical Space for Political Activism,” in Sport, Rhetoric, and Political Struggle, eds. Daniel A. Grano and Michael L. Butterworth (New York: Peter Lang, 2019), 63.
10 Erika D. Smith, “Smith: ‘They Tried to Make it a Moment, but It Was a Movement’,” IndyStar, March 18, 2015, https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/erika-smith/2015/03/18/smith-tried-make-moment-movement/24983931/.
11 See Anna M. Young, “Richard Sherman's Rhetorical Witnessing,” in Sport, Rhetoric, and Political Struggle, eds. Daniel A. Grano and Michael L. Butterworth (New York: Peter Lang, 2019), 129–39.
12 Jason Hanna, David Close, and Kevin Dotson. “NFL Players Kneel, Raise Fists or Sit Out National Anthem as Preseason Gets in Full Swing.” CNN, August 10, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/09/sport/nfl-national-anthem-preseason-games/index.html.
13 See Bryant, The Heritage, x; Stephen A. Smith, “Up Front: Remembering When Olympians Had the Guts to Speak Up,” ESPN, July 15, 2008, https://www.espn.com/espnmag/story?id=3487980; and Young, “Richard Sherman's Rhetorical Witnessing.”
14 Bryant, The Heritage, 172.
15 Abraham Iqbal Khan, Curt Flood in the Media (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2012), 168.
16 Khan, Curt Flood, 183.
17 Ortiz writes at length in his autobiography about his feelings toward his native Dominican Republic and his adopted homes of Boston (specifically) and America (generally). His ethnic and racial identity are complex, and I would urge readers to consider his own words on these topics. See David Ortiz and Michael Holley, Papi: My Story (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017).
18 Bill Speros, “What Makes Boston Sports so Special?” Kansas City Star, January 12, 2016, https://www.kansascity.com/sports/article54248055.html.
19 Michael L. Butterworth, Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity During the War on Terror (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010).
20 Mark Redfield, The Rhetoric of Terror: Reflections on 9/11 and the War on Terror (New York: Fordham University Press, 2009), 14.
21 Duchess Harris and Cynthia Kennedy Henzel, Politics and Protest in Sport (Minneapolis: Abdo Publishing), 33.
22 Michael L. Butterworth, “George W. Bush as the ‘Man in the Arena’: Baseball, Public Memory, and the Rhetorical Redemption of a President,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 22, no. 1 (2019): 1–32, https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.22.1.0001.
23 Stephen Moore, “Sports and Politics Do Not Mix,” The Washington Times, October 8, 2017, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/8/sports-and-politics-do-not-mix/.
24 Eyder Peralta, “Pentagon Paid Sports Teams Millions for ‘Paid Patriotism’ Events,” NPR, November 5, 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/05/454834662/pentagon-paid-sports-teams-millions-for-paid-patriotism-events; Harris and Kennedy Henzel, Politics and Protest in Sport, 76–7.
25 “MLB Pauses on Jackie Robinson Day to Honor Boston Marathon Bombing Victims,” CBS New York, April 16, 2013, https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/04/16/mlb-pauses-on-jackie-robinson-day-to-honor-boston-marathon-bombing-victims/.
26 Daniel A. Grano and Michael L. Butterworth, “Rhetoric, Sport, and the Political,” in Sport, Rhetoric, and Political Struggle, eds. Daniel A. Grano and Michael L. Butterworth (New York: Peter Lang, 2019), 2.
27 Hartman, “New Rhetorical Space,” 58.
28 “Indecent, Obscene and Profane Broadcast,” Federal Communication Commission, accessed March 2, 2020, https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/obscene-indecent-and-profane-broadcasts.
29 Robert L. Scott and Donald K. Smith, “The Rhetoric of Confrontation,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 55, no. 1 (1969): 8, https://doi.org/10.1080/00335636909382922.
30 Melissa Mohr, Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 9.
31 See Jess Sheidlower, The F-word (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Mohr, Holy Shit.
32 Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature (New York: Viking, 2007), 339. It is worth noting that, in the early days of the Republic, civic leaders feared not just profane speech, but all manner of powerful speech, believing the average citizen to be too easily swayed by strong oratory. The fear of charismatic speakers apparently has run through Boston from the Revolution to the Red Sox. See Jeremy Engles, “Uncivil Speech: Invective and the Rhetorics of Democracy in the Early Republic,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 95, no. 3 (2009): 323, https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630903156453.
33 Melvin J. Lasky, Profanity, Obscenity & the Media: The Language of Journalism, Volume Two (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2014), 235.
34 Mohr, Holy Shit, 10–11.
35 Mohr, Holy Shit, 13.
36 Mohr, Holy Shit, 14.
37 See Paul J. Achter, “Comedy in Unfunny Times: News Parody and Carnival after 9/11,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 25, no. 3 (2008): 274–303, https://doi.org/10.1080/15295030802192038.
38 Melissa Deem, “Decorum: The Flight from the Rhetorical,” in Argumentation and Values: Proceedings of the Ninth SCA/AFA Conference on Argumentation, ed. Sally Jackson (Annandale: Speech Communication Association, 1995), 228.
39 Robert Hariman, “Decorum, Power, and the Courtly Style,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 78, no. 2 (1992): 164, https://doi.org/10.1080/00335639209383987.
40 Andrew Herman, The “Better Angels” of Capitalism: Rhetoric, Narrative, and Moral Identity Among Men of the American Upper Class (Boulder: Westview Press, 1999), 6.
41 Ronald W. Greene, “Another Materialist Rhetoric,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 15, no. 1 (1998): 38–9, https://doi.org/10.1080/15295039809367031.
42 J. Dan Rothwell, “Verbal Obscenity: Time for Second Thoughts,” Western Journal of Speech Communication 35, no. 4 (1971): 233, https://doi.org/10.1080/10570317109373711.
43 Pete Williams, “Supreme Court Allows Trademark for F-word Soundalike Clothing Brand,” NBC News, June 24, 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-trademark-f-word-soundalike-n1014796. Notably, Chief Justice Roberts was writing for the dissent.
44 Theodore Otto Windt, Jr., “The Diatribe: Last Resort for Protest,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 58, no. 1 (1972): 9, https://doi.org/10.1080/00335637209383096.
45 Thomas Rosteck and Michael Leff, “Piety, Propriety, and Perspective: An Interpretation and Application of Key Terms in Kenneth Burke's Permanence and Change,” Western Journal of Speech Communication 53, no. 4 (1989): 338, https://doi.org/10.1080/10570318909374312.
46 Although the FCC has the authority to fine profanities on the airwaves since the landmark “Pacifica” ruling in 1978, the Commission's stance toward profanity became more aggressive in 2004. Following a series of highly publicized incidents of indecency throughout public media, the FCC levied hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines. Congress further enabled harsher penalties by increasing tenfold the maximum amount the FCC could fine. The Supreme Court in 2012 ruled that the FCC needed to make its guidelines clearer, but did not rescind the FCC's authority to police the airwaves. See Biskupic, “Fight over TV”; Katy Bachman, “Supreme Court Tosses Broadcast Indecency Back to FCC,” Adweek, June 21, 2012, http://www.adweek.com/news/television/supreme-court-tosses-broadcast-indecency-back-fcc-141278; Sheidlower, The F-word, xxiii.
47 Ortiz and Holley, Papi, 191. In his book, Ortiz does not recollect who prompted him to speak. In a 2018 oral history of those events, Red Sox executive Sarah McKenna takes credit for the last-minute decision to ask Ortiz to “say a few words,” while Red Sox President, Larry Lucchino, gives himself credit for suggesting the idea to McKenna. In the same interview, Ortiz states that he already was by the dugout watching the ceremony when he was approached to speak, and that he only started to think of what he would say as he was “walking toward the mound.” See Joon Lee, “‘This is Our F—king City’: The Oral History,” Bleacher Report, April 16, 2018, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2768345-the-oral-history-of-this-is-our-f-king-city.
48 Ortiz and Holley, Papi, 191.
49 Mark Sappenfield, “David Ortiz Forgiven by FCC for Expletive Boston Will Never Forget,” Christian Science Monitor, April 21, 2013, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2013/0421/David-Ortiz-forgiven-by-FCC-for-expletive-Boston-will-never-forget-video.
50 Tony Reali, Around the Horn (ESPN, April 22, 2013).
51 Gordon Edes, “Catharsis in Our Sports Cathedral,” ESPN, April 21, 2013, http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/9195560/catharsis-fenway-park-boston-sports-cathedral.
52 Mastrodonato, “Boston Stronger.”
53 Zachary D. Rymer, “David Ortiz, Daniel Nava, Red Sox Do Boston Proud in Return to Fenway Park,” Bleacher Report, April 20, 2013, http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1611581-david-ortiz-daniel-nava-red-sox-do-boston-proud-in-return-to-fenway-park.
54 Lee, “‘This is Our F—king City’.”
55 Bill Simmons, “This Is Our Papi,” Grantland, October 31, 2013, http://grantland.com/features/this-our-papi/; Bill Simmons, “Bill Bids Farewell to Big Papi (HBO),” Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons, September 7, 2016, YouTube video, 3:52, https://youtu.be/09SE6RDe0vk.
56 Katy Bachman, “FCC Tweet Lets Slide Ortiz F-word,” Adweek, April 21, 2013, http://www.adweek.com/news/television/fcc-tweet-lets-slide-ortiz-f-bomb-148796.
57 Lee, “‘This is Our F—king City’.”
58 Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, Pardon the Interruption (ESPN, April 22, 2013).
59 Deadspin obtained the viewer complaints through a freedom of information request and then made them available to the public in an online archive. All references to the FCC complaints in this essay are from this archive. As of the time of this writing, the archive is available at: https://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/151570197?access_key=key-1cj4tkrincbbr30xup2z. Names and email addresses of individuals are redacted, but each complaint in the archive has its own page. All excerpts from the archived FCC complaints are presented as is and without editorial notation. Barry Petchesky, “Every Viewer Complaint about Big Papi's Post-Bombing Swear Word,” Deadspin, July 4, 2013, http://deadspin.com/heres-every-viewer-complaint-about-big-papis-post-bom-661072193.
60 Celeste M. Condit, “The Critic as Empath: Moving Away from Totalizing Theory,” Western Journal of Communication 57, no. 2 (1993): 189, https://doi.org/10.1080/10570319309374441. I also recommend her book on the rhetoric of public anger emerging from and contributing to the September 11 attacks, as she explores those rhetorical factors from multiple points of view. See Celeste Michelle Condit, Angry Public Rhetorics (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018).
61 Sappenfield, “David Ortiz Forgiven.”
62 “Big Papi Named the 2013 World Series MVP after an Amazing Series,” MLB, November 1, 2013, YouTube video, 4:59, https://youtu.be/fVnGWY0zzEc.
63 Ortiz and Holley, Papi, 1.
64 Ortiz and Holley, Papi, 191–2.
65 Ortiz and Holley, Papi, 192.
66 “David Ortiz Rallies the Boston Crowd after Boston Marathon Tragedy,” MLB, April 20, 2013, YouTube video, 1:01, https://youtu.be/1NttSTenyEk.
67 Dave Granlund, “Terrorists and Ortiz Expletive,” April 21, 2013, http://www.davegranlund.com/cartoons/2013/04/21/terrorists-and-ortiz-expletive/.
68 Patriots Day. Directed by Peter Berg. Santa Monica: CBS Films/Lionsgate, 2016.
69 Sean Penney, “David Ortiz to Appear in ‘Patriots Day’ Film,” Bosox Injection, May 4, 2016, https://bosoxinjection.com/2016/05/04/red-sox-david-ortiz-to-appear-in-patriots-day-film/.
70 Hyber, “Barack Obama Approves.”
71 Mohr, Holy Shit, 237.
72 Such was thought to be the case with British soldiers during World War I, who reportedly used the word “fucking” so often that it virtually was rendered meaningless in their discourse. According to one account, its use among soldiers was so ubiquitous that it came to mean little more than “a warning that a noun is coming.” Mohr, Holy Shit, 228.
73 For a different expression of this argument, I recommend “It Hits the Fan” from South Park season 5, episode 1, in which the townsfolk's excessive use of profanity—or “cursed words”—creates a threat that is defeated when the citizens learn to moderate their cursing.
74 Peter Baker, “The Profanity President: Trump's Four-Letter Vocabulary,” New York Times, May 19, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/us/politics/trump-language.html.
75 Jed Gottlieb, “All the Swear Words Fit to Print: How Newspapers Are Handling Donald Trump's Foul Mouth,” QZ, January 11, 2018, https://qz.com/quartzy/1177146/all-the-swear-words-fit-to-print-how-newspapers-are-handling-donald-trumps-foul-mouth/.
76 See Jennifer R. Mercieca, “Dangerous Demagogues and Weaponized Communication,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 49, no. 3 (2019): 264–79, https://doi.org/10.1080/02773945.2019.1610640; and Joshua Gunn, “On Political Perversion,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 48, no. 2 (2018): 161–86; https://doi.org/10.1080/02773945.2018.1428766.
77 Avi Selk, “How Trump Took Swearing Mainstream,” Washington Post, October 4, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/if-the-president-is-doing-it----how-trump-took-swearing-mainstream/2019/10/04/f0f25096-e6a9-11e9-a6e8-8759c5c7f608_story.html.
78 Tony Reali, Around the Horn (ESPN, April 22, 2013).