Star Fucker

Now that I have your attention......

Star Fucker was written across the back of a man’s jacket at a festival I attended recently out in the hills of Tuscany. The man was about 35 years old, and had his wife and 2 children with him, and they were with 2 other couples and their families, seated at a table, enjoying the music and food at the festival. Of course, he was Italian. I was the only one there who wasn’t.

Francesco and I were seated at a table nearby when I spotted the jacket. When I saw it, I was shocked! Even if I had seen it in the US, it would have been shocking, because few people wear blatant profanity in public, although there are some. Anyway, the people who do are usually not 35 year old men with their families out for a wholesome evening of fun at the community festival. It just didn’t add up.

I leaned over to Francesco and whispered in his ear....."there is a man behind you who has a jacket on that says "Star Fucker".". Francesco turned around and looked at the man. The music was playing loudly and we were close to it. Francesco turned back to me, and said in a voice so that I could hear over the music...."What is Star Fucker?" Since I could hear his voice over the music, so could everyone else, and I gulped down my mouthful of wine to prevent it from spewing all over the table. "SHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhh! " I said. "Don’t say that out loud in public!" I was mortified, but none of the people nearby who had heard him looked alarmed.
Francesco started to laugh and said, "No one here speaks English, so they don’t know those words. Even if the did know it was a bad word in English, it doesn't have the same impact here. " I think that is probably true because now that I know Italian profanity, it definitely doesn't have the same impact on me when I hear it, and saying it doesn't give me the same satisfaction at all as English curse words!

I still didn’t think it was funny, but to this day, he teases me about being so subversive about pointing it out to him, and says that the look on my face was priceless when he shouted it out over the crowd.

I still wonder why the man had the jacket on, and if he knew what it meant or said and where he got it. So many unanswered questions.