Profanity makes talking fun.
A well placed curse word here or there can spice up a conversation, but the constant use, IMHO, can make you seem less intelligent. That and if your mom catches you, she'll wash your mouth out with soap.
First of all, my mother swears as much as I do. Granny swears a little less, but not by much. So no soapy water in this civilized and rational part of the world.
Some may regard you as less intelligent. But I don't think it's down to swearing itself, I think it's a combination of factors, from how you're presenting yourself visually, the tone of your voice and the context, combined with the words. In all, the way you're seen. It's an old myth that people who swear have a poor vocabulary. I do have a less than perfect vocabulary in English, but I can assure you that's not the case with my native language. Anyhow.
I know a great number of words. And I swear. If someone were to know the same number of words as me, except for the swear words, that person would have a smaller, more limited vocabulary.
The argument seems to be, we can live without swearing. Yes. We could. But why? We could live without a load of things, doesn't mean we should fight it.
What counts as a curse word or not is also quite fun to define.
Case in Point, my little nephew (in a "no-bad words" household) is allowed to watch this animated Tv-Show every weekday about Pirates ... and they constandly curse. But .. since this a childrens progam, they don?t say (the german words equivalent to) fuck, shit, asshole etc ... they use fantasy, funny words or words that usally have a different meaning. So when a cannonball lands on a pirates foot, he yells something nonsensical like (I can?t remember so I make this up now) "butterfly" wich is (in this context) a curse word meaning "shit" or "fuck". And my nephew runs around screaming butterfly whenever something falls over or so.
But the fact of the matter is ... he is cursing. And this has nothing to do with the words he?s using.
He?s learned to "beat the system" at such a young age, his uncle is mighty proud of him
?How can you conceivably trust the Lib Dems! Spineless, protoplasmic, invertebrate amoebic fibbers ? Janus-faced!?
- Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson
What's the doing? He's swearing. But he's doing it as a classical scholar. So it's okay. I think so. I love it. It's the kind of smart, intelligent use of swearing that inriches the language especially.
Another argument, is to equate using words like "nigger" to using words like "fuck". Which is idiotic.
I had a conversation with a priest about swearing a few years ago. He taught the worst swear words were 'herregud', literary translated as "Master God", perhaps equated to "Dear Lord". That's the
worst swear word imaginable to him.
I just get tired of this notion it's "important" to make sure kids don't swear. It's just stupid, it's like saying it's important that children don't mention colors or adverbs. Seriously, it's one of the worst wastes of time I know about. It takes away time and resources from other things, really important things. It's a notion it's inherently bad.
But it isn't. It's made up. People have decided it's bad, so it is. But it isn't.
I do draw a line, though. It's not okay for a school child to say "fuck off you fucking shit" to a fellow pupil or a teacher or member of staff. That's wrong. But it's idiotic to stop pupils saying "that exam was fucking hard". That's wrong.
I'm not inpolite when I swear. I'm being polite, while swearing. It's much more impolite things to do that does not seem to draw in the crusades that swearing gets. I've got a big problem with that.
