Profanity and You.

Shit Piss Cunt Fuck Cocksucker Motherfucker and Tits.

 George Carlin's bit (7 dirty words you can't say on TV or radio) touches on a subject that is dear to my heart. Swearing. I was brought up in a home where my parents never really swore to much, and never got too angry when my sister and I used a swear word. Like most people, my parents understood that some language was inappropriate in certain settings and passed this on to my sister and I. Profanity has been something I thought about a lot since an incident that occurred in my fourth grade class. I don't remember exactly what made me say it, but I said offhandedly at one point "what the hell?". I didn't see this as a bad thing, I was expressing disbelief at a situation. All of a sudden I was getting berated by my teacher and 3-4 students for using the "H-E-Double hockey sticks" word. I couldn't believe it. Hell wasn't a curse word to me. I was puzzled by the idea that a word could be offensive to someone. I had never given it much thought before that. I just took it as granted that some words are "bad" because that was what I was told. This eventually led to me questioning other aspects of what I had been taught, and why (an aspect of myself which persists to this day).

 This was a valuable lesson, and has led to some interesting discussions. The conclusion I eventually came to was that "curse words" were arbitrary. Most of these words have to do with bodily functions and parts, and I would argue are "bad" because of this because we live in a mostly puritanical society in which bodily functions are shamed, and morality from personal belief is inflicted on others. There are, however, words though that slip through this censoring in modern culture: "Scientific terms" (Breasts or mammary glands instead of Tits), euphemisms (beanbag instead of ball-sack), and words that are "softer" in terms of how it is pronounced (poo/shoot instead of shit, shit sounds "sharper"). In most cases these are fine for use by most people, but are still "bad" to people who find talking about anything "personal" taboo. The fact that there are words that are acceptable in colloquial speech, even though they have the exact same meaning, means to me that, for whatever reason, we decided that these "curse words" are not to be used in public settings.

 These words serve purposes other than the base definitions they point too, and this is why we see them continue to thrive instead of die out. They feel good to use, they can make people laugh (which feeds into the last reason), they are cathartic for pain (both physical and mental), and they are fucking great for adding punch to a statement. That last one has the most weight in my opinion. I can use a word that everyone knows to make a statement hit harder. These words don't just make people listen, they are huge in terms of meaning. They add a colloquial context to a statement that give it more depth, then if I were to use a normal word. I would argue that context and intent are more important than the words you use. Words cannot be inherently bad since they are symbolic of a concept, and not of a moral stance.

 Essentially what I am trying to say is this: People who care about cursing enough to tell you that you talk like a lower class (in fact higher class people tended to curse more in studies than people in the lower classes, because the people trying to ascend social ladders wanted to be on their best behavior to appear more like higher class people: also fuck people who judge people based on their income class), lower intelligence(intelligence has nothing to do with it as far as I know because I couldn't find any studies from reputable sources that showed this), or are morally corrupting of youth (kids learn these words from their parents mostly anyway) are trying to force their moral opinion of something onto you. This is wrong. Just because they find the aesthetics of your speech to be bad, doesn't mean they get to tell you how to act. As I said, words are morally neutral, so by trying to drag them into that realm, they are being overly controlling of people they have no right to do so with. In Short: Fuck those guys. Judge for yourselves.

 Also, if you have any response to this, please comment: I would love to have good discussions take place on the topics we talk about here so please add any information you want to (sources are appreciated). My only request is follow Wil Wheaton's advice and don't be a dick.

 Sources: I did some research before writing this and found a few articles that have some good/interesting information on profanity. The ones that I used as sources in this post are linked bellow. I highly suggest you read them.
Time Magazine
psychologicalscience.org
theguardian.com