Swearing

Just something that was on my this morning as I listened to Sevendust's song "Face to Face".  There is a lot of swearing in the song, primarily the word that starts with F.  It takes an angry song and makes it funny, especially at the end of the song when he just yells "F You!".  It makes me laugh every single time which I'm sure wasn't the artist's intent but it is just too funny.  So why do people swear?  Why do we let words carry so much weight within our language?

This post is inspired by the amount of people that are upset with the censoring of Motor Trend forums although I was far more upset by the fact that my language that wasn't obscene was being censored as well.  In the written word, I could care less about swearing.  I have a strict no-censorship rule on the blog as well as the related Facebook group.  I swear in my own posts from time to time.  I find it can carry emotion better than simple text.  However at the same time, I have a very strict no-swearing rule when I speak.  Except for a word that starts with S, I love that word.  Still, never around children.  I also hate being swore at.  I can see your emotion in your speech and expressions, I don't need you using offensive language at me.

But that brings me to another point: why do we let simple words carry so much emotion and ability to offend within them?  Take a racial slur that begins with the letter N.  That word carries a lot of weight when it is used.  But what if it didn't?  What if a black person was not even mad when someone used that word?  Would it would stop getting used?  How about 'gay'?  That word is being used in ways that are being considered obscene as well even though it used to mean 'joy'.  Words that weren't obscene are becoming obscene and yet if I use a word in place of those obscene words like saying "flubber" when I would normally say more colorful words, that "flubber" carries no weight at all.  This leads me to believe that if we wanted to, we could take the power away from those obscene words.  If we didn't react to their use, they would lose their magical abilities.  What I'm trying to say is that when you get offended by somebody swearing you are simply encouraging them to swear some more.  It really is that simple.  You can apply this to other topics in life.  Woman walking around without much clothing on?  Don't look at it.  Violent television show on?  Don't watch it.  People voting Republican?  What's wrong with them seriously, do they just like giving their money to rich people?  People saying lots of F words?  Ignore it.

That being said, I made it through an entire post about swearing without swearing.