Class

Sometimes, I think they left out the best scene and the best song. This is a deleted scene from the movie Chicago, that appears in the DVD that has Mamma Morton and Velma Kelly sing the immortal lines:

Oh, there ain't no gentelmen to open up the doors,
There ain't no ladies now there's only pigs and whores
And even kids'll knock you down so's they can pass
Nobody's got no class!!!

The irony here obviously is that the women who sing about class have no class of their own, since they are swearing all the time. It makes me think about this old taboo about women and swearing. I swear a lot and a lot of people are not pleased with me for that. I hear a lot of stupid things about swearing and how it does not agree with me, with my social standing and my education.

I profoundly disagree. Petit bourgeoisie must die, I say. What does it mean, social standing and the rest? Anybody can sometimes feel pressed and then curses and feels better. Whoever doesn't do that will die repressed. My education has nothing to do with my need to say a bad word if I feel to. And in any case, I think that class is severely overrated, and so often confused with 'good manners' from another century. Class has nothing to do with how you speak and whether you say 'fuck' every so often. It has to do with so many other things. Like Velma and Mamma Morton, who overcome the irony and manage to still have some class in jail, swearing like sailors.