Why must people curse?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I have nothing to add to this (except for agreement with the nothing-wrong-with-swearing crowd) except for the following:

  1. Quebecois has a truly wonderful array of curses stemming from Roman Catholicism, including calice, ciboire, hostie, tabernacle, vierge, and christ, which is not used as we would use the word “Christ!”, but rather as a verb meaning “not to give a damn” (Je m’en crisse!) I love Quebecois curses, and I use them frequently, even by myself or with other anglos.

  2. Click here for an essay I wrote about why “fuck” is a swearword.

22

FYI Matt, the web page has a bad problem. The background is black, and the text is black. Not visible at all. (Also following on the Abstract page. I didn’t look further.) I did manage to read it by highlighting the text, but that shouldn’t be required to see it.

I am using Netscape.

23

As a lady, most swearing offends me in general. That being said, there have been times I have been known to use an occasional profanity myself. Used sparingly, to make a point or emphasize one, is acceptable to me, except around children. IMHO. There are two in particular that I take great offence to hearing or reading: the F word, and using God’s name in vain. I have never seen or heard of any possible valid reason to use either one, unless you really hate women or you are an atheist or Satan worshipper. Again, IMHO.

sailor: 'scuse me? It does bother me, and I am most assuredly offended by it, especially when children are present! I do not need to ‘lighten up’ about it either. GIGO. For an adult show, shown at a time when most kids are in bed, fine, if that’s what someone wants to watch, during prime time or after school, on a channel that a lot of kids watch, it is not fine.

Veb, I have to agree with you, especially the

I don’t agree that ‘habit cussing’ is more weak than offensive, to me it’s both. And it isn’t ‘white noise’ to me.

I would like to think that those of my friends who know me and how I feel refrain from swearing around me out of respect for my feelings. In a forum such as this, I just try to overlook the foul language, or in the case of a troll, consider the source and react accordingly. Actually, casual swearing for no apparent purpose probably offends me more than the pointed, considered swear word would. Or those using it for the shock value. [sarcastic mode on]Ooooh, big he-man type shocks the ‘gentle’ lady just for the fun of it. I’m impressed. NOT.[sarcastic mode off]
BTW, I am a Christian, and you may have noticed, while I don’t shy away from that, neither do I try to beat anyone up for it, or shove it in their face. My main reasons, stated above, have some to do with my religious views, and more to do with my opinion as the lady I try to be.

24

It’s my evil twin talking whenever I curse… the evil twin is angry with double standards…

25

Irishman: So I’ve heard. I don’t really know how to get around that, so I’ll just repost it.
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FUCK. One of the most underrated words in the English language. It is of venerable antiquity, being used in its present form as early as 1495 and having its roots traced all the way back to the earliest ancestor of the Indo-European language family. It is of unparalleled versatility, being usable as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, and interjection. And it is the only common English simple transitive verb meaning “to have sex with”. Yet, it is treated in the most ungrateful fashion, being so scorned and censored as even to be omitted from some inferior dictionaries.
All human languages have taboo words, and many languages’ taboo words refer to sex and excretion. However, sex and waste elimination are not treated the same way. Even though fuck and shit are curses of approximately equal intensity in practical usage, many dictionaries and usage guides treat them differently. Fuck often receives the highest taboo category, whereas shit gets off lightly. For example, in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, fuck is described in its usage note as “considered to be one of the most offensive words in the English language”, whereas shit is not even given a usage note, merely listed as “coarse slang”. This is probably because sex is in a very peculiar position relative to excretion.

The majority of people prefer sex to going to the bathroom; this is because whereas sex is often splendid, excreta are messy and smell bad. The subject of excretion is not brought up half as often in progressive media as sex is. Very few movies feature bathroom scenes, and nobody has ever made a movie treating excretion in as serious a way as sex is treated in films like Making Love or American Beauty. And whereas sex appeal is used to sell everything from condoms to cars and perfume, defecation references are not used to sell anything, not even toilet paper. Therefore, on the surface of it, it would seem very odd that fuck should be a more taboo word than shit, or that more strange complexes, religious fetishes, and personal problems should center around sex than excretion.

However, excretion does have one thing going for it, which is that it is not possible to control it beyond a few minutes. Except during major medical problems, every human being defecates at least once a day and urinates several times a day every single day of his or her life. Nobody has sex anywhere near that often. The most basic and earliest form of children’s education that actually involves teaching, is potty training.

Conversely, some people can go without sex, and even without masturbation, for protracted periods. It requires willpower, but it can be done. The minimum number of sex acts which need to take place to sustain life is one per person, and even that takes place nine months before birth and doesn’t even involve the person in question.

Monotheistic western religions, being tools of hegemonic social control, want to control as much as possible. Sex, being controllable, was therefore controlled in the same way as diet and ritual. The problem is that most adolescent and adult humans have a powerful drive to have sex, which is not the case for such things as eating pork or wearing mixed fibres.

The Judeo-Christian religions tried to provide for this by declaring certain types of sex licit, specifically sex in marriage for reproduction. But humans do not have a natural drive to reproduce; they have a natural drive to have sex. Since women do not go into or out of periods of sexual willingness as in other species, humans were having sex for centuries before they realized that it often results in pregnancy.

Therefore, three major religions found themselves going up against a fundamental fact of human biochemistry and psychology. This didn’t seem to worry them very much; after all, the religions in question are abstract systems and, as John Ralston Saul points out, it is the considered opinion of rational élites that in any given disagreement between abstraction and reality, reality is wrong.

Fortunately for the aching gonads and sensibilities of the human race, after the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, many people’s mores about sex became much more sensible and liberated. However, as human nature warred against religion and eventually won, there was a great deal of collateral damage. These included such things as sexually transmitted diseases which were spread because they weren’t discussed in a realistic manner; generations of people who worried whether their natural drives were perverted or not and went to their graves ridden with complexes; dreadful prejudices against people of minority sexual orientations, identities and tastes; strange and baroque systems of gender roles; and the use of sex to impose power, such as in rape and incest. And also the poor state of the useful and cheerful word fuck.

In summary, shit is taboo for the boring fact that it is unpleasant to contemplate. Fuck is more taboo because it makes reference to an abstract religious credo. It is interesting that fuck is referred to as a four-letter word, since the Greek word tetragrammaton, which literally means “four-letter word”, refers to YHWH - the name of the Jewish and Christian god. It is to be hoped that as the abstraction which spoiled the good name of sex evaporates, and as the remaining psychological shrapnel is swept up, perhaps fuck will be rehabilitated, and the human race, with an appropriate amount of common sense and frankness, can matter-of-factly get on with fucking.
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© 2000 Matt McLauchlin.

26

This statement is no longer true. There is a new commercial for a toilet paper that I have seen twice in the past week. It says that the toilet paper has “ridges” or something that will get you a lot cleaner. It concludes by saying that it will keep your white laundry whiter. So, it basically is saying that if you use this toilet paper, you won’t get skid marks.

I was completely shocked by this commercial–>not offended, but shocked. I realized I had never heard such a thing before on a toilet paper commercial.

So, I guess it is the exception that proves the rule!

27

Green Bean:

Actually I think it more likely it means the rule is continue to evolve to now include realism in even toilet paper commercials. The other day on TBS or TNT, one of those cable channels that seems to pretty much conform to the morals practices of ABC, CBS and NBC (as opposed to true cable channels like HBO where most morals rules are dropped) I heard the word “shit” used. There was no attempt to bleap it, no dubbing with “shoot”. My feelings are the censors are getting more and more liberal in both TV and commercials and this toilet paper commercial is the latest entry into the stretching of morality in those arenas. This is fine by me. I have also felt people do best being told things as they are and making their own moral judgement instead of having some censor deciding what I do and don’t need to hear.

28

Well, since the topic continues to veer, I’ll second the thought that the guidelines regarding strong language on broadcast, prime time tv have certainly changed in recent years. A few nights ago I watched one hour of “regular” broadcast tv (8:00-9:00), two sitcoms, both of which would be thought of as mild-mannered and family oriented. In that hour I heard “bastard”, “ass”, and “bitch” (twice) tossed into the dialog without a blink, along with several "damn"s and "hell"s, which are too common to even be noted. (I can’t imagine what the count would be for a “younger, edgier show”, as they are always referred to in the newspaper.) This is quite a distance from twenty some years ago, when “All In the Family” was the epitome of scandal and controversy because Archie said “hell” or “damn” occasionally.

I largely agree with sailor in comparing language to table manners. Around a certain audience or setting, vulgar language is as inappropriate as eating with your hands at a wedding reception. In different circumstances, anything goes, and when I have an utterly enraged moment, I need some strong words to help me get the anger out. (My most virulent cursing always happens when I am alone.) At any time, though, they are just words, nothing more. I refrain absolutely from cursing when inappropriate just as I refrain from displaying bad table manners when dining with others. But if it’s not out of line, I’ll let loose a very blue streak when I need to, and I’ll eat messily and rudely when I’m alone on the couch. It’s a matter of manners, not morals.

I was raised in a strict household and was taught that cursing is wrong. When I grew up and learned to think, I found that cursing is just words. If you’re offended when I use the word “God”, are you equally offended if I use the word “Allah”? How about “Vishnu”? Why or why not? Why so much focus on the word instead of the sentiment?

And since we’re on the subject, what the hell’s up with “The N-Word”? This monstrosity arose during the OJ trial, and has since become a standard for English speech. I for one am mortified. I never use the word “nigger”, and anyone who does is simply showing the depth of their ignorance, small-mindedness, and lack of class. But what’s with this sudden moratorium on speaking the word aloud? I’m not talking about the original conversation, I’m talking about people referring to a previous conversation/article/book/etc. Why in the world will people say, “He told me to fuck off”, but then add, “And he called me THE N-WORD.”? This just boggles my mind. I can see using “the something-word” when two adults are speaking in front of a child that they don’t want to expose to a certain inappropriate, adult, or secret word (perhaps, “orgasm” or “triple chocolate ice cream”), and I have a friend who must use “the b-word” in front of her dogs when it is time for their bath, so as not to tip them off to go hide. Outside of such circumstantial exceptions, there is no word in the world so sacred or profane that it cannot be spoken. IT’S ONLY A WORD. Should “nigger” be eradicated from speech and thought? Sure it should. But to make it “The Unspeakable Word” only gives it a weight and reverence that skews it in a most bizarre and counterproductive way.

Now I shall wait to be attacked and verbally assaulted from all sides.

P.S. In Carlin’s original “Seven Words” bit he said something like, “How can a word be that bad? Millions of words in the English language and only seven that you can’t say on tv. They must be reeeeaaally bad words. ‘All you other words, over here; you seven: BAD WORDS!’”

29

I cuss, but only when I deem it appropriate and I know it won’t offend someone close by, such as when I’m with friends or with my girlfriend. I would not cuss in front of my parents or grandmother but I have no problems with it in front of my sisters, who are not offended by the language.

It is also my opinion that people that cuss as a matter of their everyday communication and language (you know the people that cant speak a normal sentence without using fuck or shit every other word for no obvious reason)sound uneducated and illiterate.

Thats my $.02 if you dont like it you can fuck yourself.

30

Analytically (and possibly Freudianly), I curse because it makes me feel like an adult. My father only cursed when he was around his father, but when he was around my grandfather, he swore like a sailor. I was, of course, never allowed to swear as a child, so as I grew up, I used ‘dirty’ words in order to feel more adult.

Now that I’m an adult, I swear like a fucking sailor’s bastard whore-son. I don’t particularly care about it, and can reign it in when necessary. But those words are just a part of my vocabulary, and I use them to express anger, frustration, and amazement. And I use them because they convey my feelings better. After all, which sounds more amazed- “Jesus Fucking Christ on a big-dicked pony!” or “Gosh!” I’ll use the latter when very mildly surprised (or to express sarcasm at someone else’s surprise), and the former when I see something that redefines my world-view.

31

This is not a very intelligent thought out post.

Wally already said it, and I’ll back him up. You already know the answer, jenkinsfan. I find this post to be quite condescending in its cloak of ruse. No one likes when others go high and mighty on them. Please don’t do it here.

32

I have been known to do more than a bit of swearing(search my posts for evidence of that). I think that their is no harm in a well placed obscenity, in an appropriate place or time. I don’t condone swearing in front of children or people I know it will make uncomfortable, but if you have dropped a brick on your foot it does bring relief. It does bother me when people are doing it inappropriately or thoughtlessly, but I don’t call them on that. The people I wonder about are the ones that use profanity as punctuation. They don’t realize what it sounds like and when it is appropriate eg ‘Holy shit look out for the train’ it loses its impact. So I guess I think that God has better things to do than monitor our thoughts for swear words. I feel that He would be troubled more by people making hypocritical professions of faith just to get in His good books.
Just my opinion:
Keith

33

Yes, those Christians are always trying to “Pimp Dance” with me. I need a snow scraper to remove them from my body. :smiley:

34

In my post above please insert When used in excess after 'Holy shit look out for that train.
:frowning: sigh
Keith