Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties

Christopher M. Fairman wrote the book as a follow-up to an article he published in 2007 in the Cardozo Law Review. He was motivated to conduct research on the word after learning of a Columbus, Ohio, man who was arrested for using the word in an email to a judge in 2004. He delayed writing the article until he received tenure because he was concerned its publication would adversely affect his professional reputation.

About Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties in brief

Christopher M. Fairman wrote the book as a follow-up to an article he published in 2007 in the Cardozo Law Review. The book discusses the efforts of conservatives in the United States to censor the word from common parlance. The author says that legal precedent regarding its use is unclear because of contradictory court decisions. He argues that once citizens allow the government to restrict the use of specific words, this will lead to an encroachment upon freedom of thought. Of the sixteen chapters in the book, eight use the word ‘f**k’ in their titles. Fair man died on July 22, 2015, and at the time of his death, his article was still classed with the 20 top downloaded works on the Social Science Research Network. He was motivated to conduct research on the word after learning of a Columbus, Ohio, man who was arrested for using the word in an email to a judge in 2004.

He delayed writing the article until he received tenure because he was concerned its publication would adversely affect his professional reputation. The article is 74 pages long, and the word fuck appears over 560 times. He asserts that rather than having a distinct denotation of sexual intercourse, the word’s use is most commonly associated with the power of the word f**k. He explains that those who choose to silence themselves tacitly encourage a process by which speech is forbidden through the process of passivity. He writes that increasing passivity has an impact on the legal process and says these acts are opposed to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.