Is it the emotional connection or the vulgarity that causes offense to swearing in general conversation in public? I mean in some countries I’d say swearing from what I’ve seen is fairly common place (Eg. Australia). Is this just a left over of our puritanical leanings as a society?
It has to do with cultural taboos. If you look at the kinds of words and phrases that we consider “swear” words you’ll see that they fall (mostly) into the categories of “sex,” “excrement,” and “god.” These are all things that our culture considers either too sacred or too profane to talk about, hence the informal prohibitions.
The U.S. is, by and large, more religious than other anglophone countries which is probably why you see more public acceptance of taboo words elsewhere as in your example.
Since I doubt there is a clear factual answer to this, let’s move this to IMHO.
Postestas, so far I’ve had to move three out of the four threads you’ve started out of General Questions. Before starting another thread, please read the forum descriptions and think about where it might best be suited.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Fuck if I know.
Without an emotional connection, how would it be vulgar? Without that connection, it would only be banal. By my toes and tonsils, yes!