Bare Bums and Wee Chimneys: Rudeness and Defining the Line Between Child and Adult

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Donna M. Lancos

Abstract

A careful consideration of the uses of rude or "dirty" folklore on and off the playground is necessary, because it is around rude performance and references to rudeness by children that adults enact many of their expectations and desires for their children. Reactions to verbal "dirt" reveal both the construction of children in the minds of adults, and the reaction of children to that construction. They explore it, they resist it, and occasionally they attempt to enforce it amongst their peers. The reaction of adults to the forbidden words and actions of kids, whether or not they are their own children, in turn speaks to anxieties and expectations that adults have about children and, by association, the society of the future.

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