Scary Language
On Sunday night the Academy Awards were handed out in Los Angeles. The big moment came when “Brokeback Mountain” did NOT win “best picture,” and neither did “Capote.” Instead, the film “Crash” took top honors (although Brokeback did win for best adapted screenplay).
There was another award that was quite shocking, however. That award was for “best original song.” Nearly every movie uses either original songs or scores to help tell the story being portrayed on the screen. Some of those have been burned into our minds, never to be forgotten again (after all, who can forget those two notes when “Jaws” was approaching?). I hope, though, that this is not the case this year.
Of all the songs (not to be confused with scores, which are just instrumentals) that were written for films this year, the “best” one was entitled “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” The decision by the academy to vote for this song has been shocking to many, including some liberals. Even Al Sharpton thinks this song sends the wrong message and should have never been voted as the best, or even nominated, for that matter.
There is another theme here, though, that has frightened me for some time. Many of our young people see nothing wrong with throwing the words “pimp” and “pimping” (or, as it us usually pronounced “pimpin'”) around in common language. These words have come to mean something glorified and cool.
Recently, I heard a young lady in my youth group say that someone’s car was “pimpin’.” I couldn’t resist asking her if she knew what that word meant. Her answer shocked me. To paraphrase, she said, “Yes, but now it just means that something is cool.” MTV has a hit show where they take old, beat up automobiles and fix them up. They give the vehicles new paint, a fresh interior and much more. They usually add one “off the chart” feature (maybe a hot tub in the back of a van or a computer lab in the back seat for a college student). While fixing up old cars for those who need it is a good thing, it is the name of the show that scares me. The name? “Pimp My Ride.”
What are we glorifying by using such language. Friends, words mean something! While it is true that language changes with time, the word “pimp” is still used of those who own and traffic prostitutes (which, besides being immoral, is illegal!). To throw the word around as a sign of something being “in” is helping to say that prostitution and, therefore, illegal sex is a cool thing. Is that what we want our children to think?
As for the Three 6 Mafia “tune” that won for “best original song” Sunday night? I just wonder, if we keep allowing these things to be glorified by our language and entertainment, how much longer will be “hard” to be a pimp? When will it become acceptable behavior? Sadly, in many places it already is. And a generation is being raised to think that it is cool. Let’s teach our children better than that.
