Keeping It Real

Okay, so I'm reading the August 31 edition of EW (yes, I know, I'm a week behind) and they have a short interview with Kristen Bell about what she's been up to since Veronica Mars was canceled. Apparently, she's made a couple of movies and is about to join the cast of Heroes, which is all well and good. And then I come to this comment:

"I have the mouth of a sailor. I have to remember not to drop F-bombs when I'm ordering my lunch. Nothing is supposed to be offensive about it, it's just meant to be real." (emphasis mine)

Now, not to put words - or F-bombs - in her mouth, but what "meant to be real" actually means is "that's the way people really talk" or possibly "that's the way real people talk", which has a slight whiff of denigration to it. Like Kevin Smith, she apparently feels that "real" conversations - in which people let their hair down and say what they really think - are laced with profanity because that's, well, just the way people talk. Unless, of course, you're giving an interview to a mass-market entertainment magazine, in which case you must censor your words because even though "nothing is supposed to be offensive about it", it might just, you know, offend someone.

My first thought, when I'm privy to conversations where every other word is the F-bomb, is that the people involved are just ignorant, or if not, just being intellectually lazy. But on second thought, the real meaning is entirely different. While it may not be meant to offend - I question that - the real intent is to separate. At bottom, the indiscriminate use of language like that is a form of tribalism, an effort to establish the boundaries of the group. Simply put, keeping it real is code for if you talk like that, you're one of my crowd, my "peeps". If you don't, then you're not.

Just so you know, I'm not offended by the F-bomb, having been known on occasion to use it myself. But if coming up with new and different ways to use it in a sentence is the price of admission to the real crowd, I guess you'll just have to call me "un" real.