The irony of swearing

[brooklyn77]

Here is a good little question.

We keep our kids from learning swear words. Schools are tyring to make sure kids dont swear. Our parents tell us off when we swear and we bleep words out of songs, films etc...

Yet we all, yes ALL grow up knowing exactly what F**K and A***ole etc...means. Ok we might recognise the words but If we never learnt it...how do we know what blanks to fill in?

Its like If I looked through a dictionary and picked out a word you never learnt before you would take ages to guess the missing letters.

So if the above bleeped out words I wrote are understood by a 12 year old....far too young to be swearing....surely it would have made no difference if the word had been written in full?

And for the kids who DONT know what the missing letters are...I gaurantee they will still eventually turn 30 years old and know exactly what the missing letters are.

So for all our careful nature abot swearing...are we just wasting our time? Beacuse in the end...everyone swears?

What do you think?

[halfadaily]

I don't think it's fair to say everyone swears brooklyn. I know what all the words are, but choose not to use them.

nowadays nobody bats an eyelid when foul language is used on tv or on the street, so it seems we've accepted it as part of our everyday language.

I suppose it's a case of live and let live, although personally I find it uncomfortable being in company that is using strong profanities.

I'm no prude, having a working class background, and having worked a large part of my life on the railways. Anyway, that's my thoughts on the matter.

[Kingaroo]

You can recognize a word even if you don't use it.

[jno]

everybody doesn't swear.

[xrayspecs]

Bleeping out words and using asterix in the written form is only done as a matter of decency. Everybody understands what your saying but no one actually wants to see it .

I'd say also that the person writing the word shows the reader that they are aware of the offensive nature of some swear words and hasn't decended to to some base level of decency just to make a point.

Although I would suggest most people know HOW to swear, not everybody thinks it's appropriate to do so.

[dilligaf]

But why are these words swear words?
Most of them refer to body parts and body functions and acts between people.
Surely better swear words would be MURDER, KILL, MAIM, INJURE, and plenty of other things which are unpleasant and not socially acceplted.
Any one any thoughts?

[halfadaily]

better swear words dilligaf? Why the need to swear at all when we have a perfectly good language to use. Politicians, world leaders etc can get across the message they want to say without swearing.

[snook]

True, dilligaff, we've got things pretty mixed up. Governments use euphemisms all the time to make things more acceptable, but no matter whether they call it 'friendly fire', 'collateral damage', 'surgical strike', 'air support' (strafing and bombing), or any other fancy name, they're still talking about killing and maiming, usually on a grand scale, even when it's done through incompetence (as in 'friendly fire').

If we were more honest in the way we spoke about upcoming wars, few governments would get the public's backing to go in, guns blazing. Not that that would deter them, of course, since they'd just go ahead regardless, and with disregard for the UN as well.

[brooklyn77]

Dont get me wrong, I agree swearing is not acceptable as part of every conversation. it does show a lack of intelligence.

But most people on this planet have said the word (or their equivalent) S*** or B*****d or F*** at some point in their life.
Si in theory...everyone swears. Albeit not every day or even every month. etc...

But Kingaroo...to perhaps answer my own question....
We recognise the asterix in words as a signal that this particular word is a swear word or 'bad' word. But you still need to have learnt the word to know what blanks to fill in.

For example - What is this word P******s?
In 5 seconds can you work it out? No course not, it means 'Previous' but I bet you know what S**t means?

My point is that we ALL know what it means, forcing the question, what is the point in protecting kids if they are only going to know what these words are anyway.

What they should be taught is the reason why they are offensive and why we dont use them. Etc...
Tyring to prevent them from learning the words is fruitless.

Strange...we teach school kids sex education and drugs education and we do let our kids watch horror films and violent films (some are rated 15 dont forget) but a swaer word is not taught...

Not sure really, its a tough one i agree and I would not be the person to give the go ahead for kids to learn swear words, I just feel it almost counter -productive to pretend the words dont exist.

B*gg*r is not really a seen as a swear word now, but years ago it was,,,,perhaps because it was so widly used by English Gentlemen that it has lost its rude meaning.

[joko]

swear words are, these days, mostly verbal punctuation. a lot of people don't mean much by them and often don't hold much mind to people who use them.

some people are prudish, but perhaps if we just all use them as just words - because they are, just words - it would take away the 'offense' and 'shock' factor and therefore disarm the meaning.

i agree about kids swearing. its not the fact that they swear at all thats the problem, (to me) its the fact that they cannot know when its innappropriate, like an adult would. most kids swear and have no idea what they are saying, only that its 'naughty' and that they shouldn't - but we all know that that makes kids do somthing all the more!

i remember me and sis being very young and seeing a girl on tv jumping up and down and shouting " stinky dirty b*stards" over and over - we knew it was naughty, but we also knew that we were too young to understand what it meant and started copying her - deliberately to annoy my mum!!

if we remove the sense of guilt and shock we disarm the words.

[andy-hughes]

I agree with xrayspecs' take on this.

Everyone learns swear words, it's part of growing up, but an essential part of growing up is knowing the appropriate place and time for certain words, and behaviour.

I work in an office where swearing is a daily occruence, and I join in, but I never swear at home, in front of my family. I know that all my daughters know what swear words are, and mean, but again, we don't use them in front of each other.

Just because people know certain words, does not imply that usage is acceptable anywhere and everywhere, as the famous phrase says - 'Freedom of speech does not allow you to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theatre.'

The essential understanding of time and place for language and behaviour are what make us a civilised society - and hopefully this will continue.

[mrbatfink]

Because someone swears alot does not make them less intelligent... Where that notion came from i have no idea.

Swearing is used normally for one of 2 reasons. To insult someone, or to emphasize a point (especially when in pain).

When you stub your little toe on a door frame...

'ouch, that really hurt'

[edited by AnswerBank]

Swearing makes you feel better!!!

[ursula62]

Bertrand Russell wrote an essay on middle class hypocrisy and included a story about a mother who said (in front of the children) "Oh sh1t, I've trodden in the doggy doo doo".

[AB Editor]

Hi brooklyn77,

Please remember that profanity is not allowed on the AnswerBank, regardless of users' ability to recognise them or their use of swear words in the "real world".

As an American, I probably have more of a potty mouth than most people born and bred in the UK, but to paraphrase andy-hughes there is a time and a place for everything.

AB Editor