Wankers

I’ve got a very mixed up accent—part Southern US, part francophone south Louisiana, part Irish and part English—you put it together. When anyone ever comments on it, I usually defend myself--that its not my accent that’s weird, but my vocabulary. In truth, it’s both. But, of course, being away from ‘home’ makes me more interested in claiming that the ways in which my linguistic patterns have changed, have been under my own control. And in some way, a word choice seems more under your control than the way you say your words.

I’m comfortable with wanker. It is a word that I have chosen to adopt. I use it both consciously and as a genuine expletive. It seems to be a kinder way of saying asshole, but always with an undercurrent of humour to it too. Maybe this is because it’s a ridiculous thing to accuse some one with these days. Identifying someone as “one who masturbates” is really an ineffective insult. Everyone does, and this is widely referred to on popular television.

So when this child stood brazenly and replied to Liz asking him, Whats the first thing you think of when you think of Americans? With a resounding “Wanker” I was not at all insulted. I thought, how appropriate. What an English expression, what an English expression, that I have chosen, what an expressive expression, and vapid one as well. I thought, well, that that was enough said.