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The "F" word

When Kenneth Tynan said "Fuck" on BBC television in 1965, the editorials erupted in shock and condemnation.  It was, after all, not long before that a barrister had asked in court whether "Lady Chatterley's Lover" was a book one wanted one's servants to read.  A generation later and the world has indeed changed.  Fuck is now as common as muck, as likely to be found in the pages of the Guardian as the pub, not to mention the school playground.  Racist expletives have become much more taboo than sexual ones, although many still fight shy of the "C" word.  That said, the old faithful of dirty words still has its place in the lexicon of the street, as these ten pictures, taken in Brighton and London between 1985 and 2003, show.

Explicit banner in Hyde Park at a CND demonstration in October 1985 (image 194-1)

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Copyright © David Gray 2000-2004.  All rights reserved.