Word: taboo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...candidates. They are tossing around the word class, as in middle class, in total defiance of the venerable cliche: class is America's "dirty little secret," anything really dirty being, in our culture, not exactly a secret. But here they are, blithely breaking our 200-year-old taboo on the mention of class and using "middle class" as a modifier for dozens of terms like tax cuts, values and even revolution...
...candidates can be forgiven, then, for breaking the taboo on the mention of class. But now that they've gone this far, why not take the rest of the marbles out of their mouths and refrain from using middle class as a muffled code meaning not poor? After all, the middle class has achieved celebrity status on account of its relative poverty, so those who live in absolute poverty should be at least as deserving of a politician's fleeting attention. A mortgage may be a crippling burden, but it beats having no home...
Still, Gentlepeople upholds the values of yesteryear. Smoking and frequent drinking are taboo among members, and "we don't accept anyone who's hunter," says Ashin...
Then Offerman testifies. Emily, she says, described her father's fondling as a game. "She talked about it as if she were going to a birthday party," says Offerman. "She had no sense of taboo around this." Offerman relates that when the father was told Emily was being removed from his home, he retorted, "You ask Tracy. She'll say nothing happened...
...anybody in Hollywood could bring muscle to breaking the taboo against releasing NC-17 movies, Douglas and Verhoeven are the guys. The Dutch director (who in his early films Spetters and The Fourth Man peppered extravagant sexual themes with lavish male and female nudity) is known for his inventive, violent and profitable sci-fi films RoboCop and Total Recall. Douglas is one of the town's most respected and powerful actor-producers; his risks pay off. Should Tri-Star take a gamble on his instincts? Director Lili Fini Zanuck (Rush) thinks so: "You've got Michael Douglas, a major star...