Stop Fecking Swearing!

Bad language catches your attention doesn't it?

Do you think people who swear profusely think it makes them sound more important or cool or contemporary? Or do you think obscenities are so engrained in the modern psyche it’s of no consequence if language is littered with them? Is it considered awesome to swear?

You see, as I've been surfing the net lately I've come across even more bad language than normal and I'm really beginning to find it quite unpleasant. In fact, I have no desire to visit those particular personal websites again. Sure, I can tolerate a few vulgarities and sometimes when they're used cleverly it can be a useful tool for comedic effect or to really hammer a point home - but every other sentence? I just find it fecking tedious. Worse, vulgarities can make you sound like a fecking idiot with a limited fecking vocabulary. Know what I fecking mean? You do? Awesome.

I'll admit that I occasionally swear and even drop the odd clanger here on my blog. Sometimes I even write the word "arse" - and not always when it's about my bottom. In respect of those very few f-word incidents I use asterisks because I'm sensitive to other people’s use of language so I anticipate that some people might have sensitivities to mine. I think asterisks take the edge off obscenities whilst still allowing me to speak in my own voice. I know some people will see that as a cop out or not being true to myself or even rather quaint but I just consider it polite. And what's wrong with having good written manners? I wouldn't use swear words in conversation with a stranger so neither would I want to offend one landing upon my blog by stringing every other sentence together with expletives. Frankly, I don't think the level of profanities I’ve come across lately is clever or cool and, in my opinion, if the writer thinks it's funny they’d better be sure readers are laughing with them and not at them.  I suppose what I’m saying is; I think swearing can be totally non-awesome.

Strangely enough, when I was a teenager I swore a lot. I wrote about the reasons for it in my article: Life and Language: A Personal Story. However, now I'm older and wiser I swear in moderation which is when I'm really irate (which usually involves being cut up at a roundabout on my way to the dentists) or when I am in one of my excitable moods (which may or may not involve alcohol). In my everyday language, I don't swear much at all now - although I'd be lying if I said a few corkers didn't occasionally slip through my  lips whilst I'm nibbling my cucumber sandwiches. I've definitely become more conservative in my use of language. Perhaps that's because as I've watched my children grow (which is mega awesome by the way) and listen to the world around them I understand and appreciate the need to preserve all the nicer aspects of the English Language and behaviour.

Maybe the increased use of casual expletives I’m reading on the net is just another example in the overall decline of literacy skills. Language is always changing and evolving and it always will be but, in my book, some changes are not so welcome. When I see vulgar language written by supposedly young and intelligent writers on their blogs I just cringe, particularly when it's by women writers. It's almost as indigestible as when I hear it coming out of the mouths of children and teenagers which is usually inappropriate and always ugly. I've had enough experience of life to accept bar room language but when I hear it from my own sex it grates even more. Call me old fashioned if you want, but there's something about foul language written by women that really turns me off.  It makes me want to take out my ruler and slap them over the wrists. Only I can’t because that would be politically incorrect and Her Majesty would probably incarcerate me in The Tower and subject me to repeats of Royal Weddings which would be the height of non-awesomeness and I’d probably have to fecking kill myself.

No doubt I’m just getting old.  I may need to start wearing support tights soon. However, I’ll probably be more comfortable with them than I am with modern language trends. How fecking sad is that?






In additions to the comments below you can follow this thread on Blogcatalog here