Cursing

[ctg492]

What happened that using the Fbomb is common practice now, with out blinking an eye?

I just visited a site on homemade deodorant, the F was being used so often I was losing interest in reading the messages. Way down the page someone posted how interesting the info was if there was not so much cursing. She got slammed of course.

I know that my mouth has said words that were not needed. I am changing that and have not missed cursing.

[Packy]

Ya, I was at the wreckin' yard a month ago, pulling a steering shaft off a Jeep to use on my El Camino project. Anyway, there were two youths out there, removing something from a car, and jabbering away at each other, and every other word it seemed was the f-word. They were oddballs. Not what I would describe as "clean cut" or "collegiate". Jailbird, would be more apt. When I go to the self-service yard, I am by myself; don't need an entourage. But some people bring their friends, even their GF's, which I think is pretty bizarre. But, those groups are usually waay too boisterous & their chatter is a distraction. But yeah, on topic, again--if a person can refrain from expletives in their conversations, even in a state of emotional arousal(anger), I believe they are a better person for it. It is one way to be "high class", without spending money on material things. Hope that helps you some. Thankk Mee.

[rosarugosa]

I enjoy the judicious use of strong language, but spicy language, like culinary spice, must be used with some restraint.

[catherine]

when I think of all the "curse" words from when I was young that are commonly accepted, and not bleeped out anymore, it's interesting. (a$$, b*tch are always heard on national networks). I am not a curser. I think if I said sh*t in front of my kids, they'd pass out, never mind the F word.

But now that I'm getting older and mellow, my feeling is that that's just how language goes. Something is unacceptable and then it's acceptable. People get desensitized to it. I think that the British slang word "bloody" used to be a terrible swear word, and I don't even know why. So, in terms of getting agitated about the increase in swearing, what I say is, F*&! it. It is what it is.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I enjoy the judicious use of strong language, but spicy language, like culinary spice, must be used with some restraint.

+1 yea the problem is that if overused the words become less effective when you really want to use them.

That's a loss but it's not the end of the world.

Bigger problems are people are more willing to fight each other and give the finger to each other as well. Not so easy to be mellow then.

Also obscene advertising. I'm really really [bad word] sick of it. So there are billboards that say "What's up Pitches?", I don't enjoy the implied b word on a billboard, it's probably a singing show, look I don't care, I don't watch t.v., I just don't want the anti female slur on a giant billboard I have to look at. And I don't think it's the first implied bad word on a billboard. Then there's all the other usual things. There's a billboard that traces the shape of a woman's behind. There's a billboard with a woman shoving her crotch in our face, the frays on her shorts suggest private part hair (look I can't even put this politely - it's bad). Sometimes I fight back, there was an ad for prenatal care with a pregnant woman's stomach, no of course I don't find that obscene, but then someone stuck an ad sticker of a woman's behind (really just a behind thrust at us, doesn't even have an upper body) on it as if it was a tattoo. I ripped it off.

I have a new public health proposal to fight hypertension: ban billboards.

There's also publically displayed ads talking about the hardness of banana and zucchinis, although they seem rather innocent in comparison, at least it's not another ad objectifying women. I have no asked the male opinion of the ad. All these ads in the past month. If there are obscene ads in a girlie mag or something, so be it, but to have this stuff forced on us against our will as public ads are is just [bad word]

[pony mom]

The F-word appears in the book Tom Jones, written in 1749. Didn't think the word was that old.

I was watching an HGTV show where this young couple bought a wreck of a house and then the show hosts were remodeling it for them (similar to Property Brothers). She was a bit full of herself, slightly trashy, and kept going on and on how classy she is, she loves classy things and wants her house to be elegant. When the house was done, her first reaction was nothing but expletives, bleeped out for TV. Yeah, ya can't buy class.

Sometimes, nothing but "Oh sh*t" will do. I try to keep it at that; my go-to word is "freaking". I hope my vocabulary is broad enough to not need curse words.

[Francie]

I don't use the "bad" curse words -- never have, and never will. I don't see the need for them. I do say "drat" and "darn it" or "dang it" and a few others, which my grown sons say mean the "same thing" as those other words. They're right, I'm sure, but I don't care. Hypocrite that I am, I have been known to think those words, tho ...

I'm just not cool, I guess ... {sigh}

[oldhat]

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

[Tussiemussies]

As I have goten older I have dropped all curse words completely. It just seems that our society has become desensitized to many foul things....once I was at a Christmas gathering and this man kept using the F word in front of my mother, who doesn't believe in cursing. I found it extremely disrespectful...where is respect anymore?

[ctg492]

Desensitized, yes that sums it up for me I guess.

[Miss Cellane]

My mom always said, "If you use bad words all the time, for every little thing, what are you going to say when something really bad happens? You'll have used all the bad words up."

Like so much of her advice, it has stood me in good stead for decades.

I still get a chuckle remembering one incident at work. A client had changed an order for probably the 6th time, and had once again refused to extend the due date. I believe my reaction to this news was, "Damn it!" As I walked down the hall to another department to let them know about the changes, people were literally fleeing left and right away from me. Word had gotten out--Miss Celene was *really* mad--and no one wanted to bother me any further.

So when you never use swear words, people notice the one time when you do. It has more of an impact.

[Float On]

We had a conversation about this in our house just a couple weeks ago. I'm thankful my kids don't use that language around me. But I do sort of make a joke how "Oh S..." is probably the most commonly used last words. Too bad no one is around to take that survey to prove my point.

[IshbelRobertson]

'bloody' as a british expletive was a contraction of the older 'God's Blood'. This was felt to be disrespectful. Frankly, I don't recall bloody as ever being a terrible sweary. Maybe there ARE some things for which I am still too young!

[catherine]

'bloody' as a british expletive was a contraction of the older 'God's Blood'. This was felt to be disrespectful. Frankly, I don't recall bloody as ever being a terrible sweary. Maybe there ARE some things for which I am still too young!

Maybe it wasn't on the level of "F" but more on the level of GD?

From Wikipedia:

Although into the 17th century the word appeared to be relatively innocuous, after about 1750 the word assumed more profane connotations in the UK and British Empire. Various substitutions were devised to convey the essence of the oath, but with less offence; these included bleeding, bleaking, cruddy, smuddy, blinking, blooming, bally, woundy, and ruddy.

On the opening night of George Bernard Shaw's comedy Pygmalion in 1914, Mrs Patrick Campbell, in the role of Eliza Doolittle, created a sensation with the line "Walk! Not bloody likely!" and this led to a fad for using "Pygmalion" itself as a pseudo-oath, as in "Not Pygmalion likely".[3][4]

The use of bloody in adult UK broadcasting aroused controversy in the 1960s and 1970s but is now unremarkable (for example, in the Harry Potter movies, which are geared towards children, the character Ron says "bloody hell" many times in all the movies).

The term Bloody hell, often pronounced "Bloody 'ell," can mean "Damn it," or be used as a general expression of surprise or as a general intensifier. It is talked about in a limerick about the letter H (aitch):[5]

Letter aitch, in some tongues, you can tell,
Is pronounced not at all, or not well.
By the Brits it is rated
Their second-most hated,
Right after, of course, "bloody ell."

[Zoe Girl]

so i am part of a meditation group where swearing is common, especially at certain times to emphasize. in fact a visiting nun who lives as an alms mendicant (like hundreds of rules) will swear because it makes us all feel more comfortable. i still have worked with kids so long that a high level sarcasm works well as it goes over their heads.

now my own kids are not allowed to swear in front of me, pretty funny for an old punk to have that rule. when my oldest daughter moved back from living with a bunch of guys she swore 3 times in a sentence. i saw the apartment, it was trashed, everything filthy, extra people sleeping on the living room floor, sink piled high with a week of dishes, uggh. in any case no swearing in front of mom so we came up with 'fuzzy bunny'. when you wanted to say that f word you substituted fuzzy bunny. i used it when i had middle school tutors working with younger elementary kids as well. if you say fuzzy bunny as many times as my daughter was swearing in one sentence you are almost guaranteed to start laughing or at least mellow out a little.

[KayLR]

How on Earth can a discussion of deodorant become that inflammatory? Just askin.'

[ctg492]

It was a homemade beauty products site I believe, I was just surfing and ran into it. It was a personal blog and the group that followed her I assume thought they were all the cool kids to use the words. I assume most were young 20 and using the F that is so cool, Or Fin stinks.