Swearing & Sex

Swearing - "use of language regarded as coarse, blasphemous or otherwise unacceptable in polite or formal speech in order to express anger or other strong emotion". To Swear on the other hand is entirely different - "to utter or take solemnly (an oath)" or "to assert or promise emphatically or earnestly". To swear by - "to place great confidence in".

I was helping in a day respite shelter for homeless people & people needing support yesterday. One of the clients used the f word continuously, but wasn't aggressive or a problem. Like many of the clients he probably has mental health issues. I'm an elderly woman & would normally think that use of the word was a measure of a paucity of language skills & unnecessary, reflecting poorly on the speaker.

In the 15th & 16th C the F word was a familiar word for sexual intercourse, but today it's use is very controversial, but is used liberally by many. The Guardian has even done a recent article about swearing 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/09/is-swearing-still-taboo

 

It is interesting that the majority of swear words are related to sex or the genitals. According to Pinker, an experimental psychologist who combines it with neuroscience, there are 5 types of swearing - dysphemistic, idiomatic, abusive, emphatic, and cathartic.

 https://www.openculture.com/2012/08/steven_pinker_explains_the_neuroscience_of_swearing.html

We each have to decide whether we want to swear & also how we want to react to others swearing. I have been known to swear in extremis, but never using the F or C words. We have to make a personal choice about what is offensive & what is just vulgar. Sometimes a swear word just pops out in the heat of the moment, I certainly don't make a habit of it. There is a tendency to think that men can swear, but women cannot. In the interests of gender equality I would challenge that. However I do think that swearing has become far too commonplace. I don't really want to be in a shop, on a bus or walking along the street & hear conversations liberally spattered with the F or C words. But it does seem to be the norm.

However I do realise that I may well be in the minority, because I also don't see the necessity to see people on the lavatory or graphic homosexual or heterosexual sexual intercourse in dramas. I'm perfectly capable of imagining that & do feel that it demeans the actors who do it. I simply don't see the point, or the difference between drama  & "soft" pornography. It seems to me to be the Hans Anderson folktale "The Emperors New Clothes" for the 21st century.