How much do you swear? F**k loads.

Warning: If you easily get offended by swear words then don't read this post. In fact, I have no idea why you read my blog if you easily get offended by swear words. But, as a record for me, this post is not full of lewd humour. 

I don't know if you have noticed, but I do tend to swear a lot on this blog. I even have tags like "fucked up"; and I tend to have many instances of 'fuck" scattered around all over the place.

Recently I started adding asterisks whenever I swear, because I wondered if some readers found my content offensive. But then I thought to myself - this blog is my own personal form of expression, and if you are offended by the material, you are welcome to stave off and go read Vintage Butterfly Dresses or something.

via Natalie Dee

Anyways, this got me thinking more - how offended do people get with swearing? Swear words only carry the meaning that they are given.

Words like "fuck" and "cunt" are completely banned when it comes to mainstream media, and others like "bullocks", "tosser", "shit", etc are vaguely dealt with. If a swear word somehow slips through the censors (via careless editing or a live broadcast) then there is an absolute bedlam to deal with, with the shows producers having to profusely apologise over and over again.

But surely, words only carry the meaning they are given? Personally, the word "fuck" has pretty much lost it's ideal as a swear word to me.

Of course, that is not to say that I would ever say it in front of my parents, or at a formal setting, but it still doesn't carry that sense of shock and awe that is used to. Nowadays, the word is thrown around so casually, from songs to movies, that I wonder how long it will hold it's position as the most offensive swear word (perhaps second only to "cunt").

Perhaps what it takes for a swear word to 'settle' into the general colloquial language of a population is a sort of cultural desensitisation towards it - via incorporating it into as many cultural artifacts as possible, as if it was an acceptable part of the language.

I mean, I remember when I was around in 6th grade of school, and the word "fuck" was spreading around our school so fast, due to this large group of new kids that had just moved in. I used to get incredibly offended at seeing people using the word so casually.

But soon, the usage started to sink into me, and after getting into all sorts of weird indie films *ahem* I was completely desensitised to the word, and even it's contemporaries like "cunt", etc.

To be honest, it was British television shows and movies that taught me a lot about the colloquial and casual use of swear words.

And soon I was using the words out loud all the time: swearing out at the slightest accident (like tripping on a wire), or to add an extra sprinkle of sourness on my sarcasm. Things got a bit ridiculous when once, in school, I got the results for a test back and I blurted out "fuck..." in front of the teacher. I am sure there were some teachers who didn't care (they were all Brits, after all), but this teacher looked quite shocked.

I once even swore out loud at the school nurse, because she wouldn't let me go to the doctor, even though I had a high fever, because of FUCKING PAPER WORK. I got into quite a lot of trouble for it, and had to apologise to the bitch, even though she was the evil one.

Oh, and then there was the incident with the Math teacher in the final year of school...it is a very long story; but it involves me storming out of my Math class yelling "I don't want to be in this shit class anyways" at the top of my voice. How hilarious (for the record, he was a sexist bully).

The point is that at school I slowly got used to swearing a lot, and never thought it as any sort of devious behaviour. So you can imagine coming to college, and finding quite a few people who are a bit sensitive to the usual casual throwaway of the phrase "fucking stupid bitch". My old roommate once got very offended when I had sworn out loud and said "fuck". She asked me, shocked, how I could use such a dirty word. I was throughly taken aback, because I never really thought swearing would be offensive to anyone from the same age group as me.


I think that certain people are more prone to being offended by swear words than others due to lack of exposure to such harsh language. This can especially be true if that person does not use English in a more colloquial sense.

If someone is used to using English in a formal setting only, then suddenly being exposed to swear words from English can be quite shocking. I mean, it's possible that a person is not shocked by swearing, or listening to swear words, in their own language, but in English it can be pretty shocking.

For me it's the opposite - in English I can swear until my mouth is filled with tar, but it is almost impossible for me to tolerate swearing in my own language (Urdu).

Whenever I hear someone swearing in my language, I tend to cringe a little bit. I think it's because I have never grown up in an environment where I have heard the slang version of my language. In fact, my mother-tongue is my 'formal' language, because I only exclusively use it to talk to my parents, and my whole family only uses the polite and pure version of Urdu.

Remember when Slumdog Millionaire came out? Yeh, it was filled with swear words in Hindi/Marathi, and this somehow was a cue for guys in my class to repeat those words as often as possible. That brief month of a stupid meme was a cringe-fest for me.

Also, it is another thing to incorporate swear words into your everyday use of language, but it is another thing to tolerate being sworn at.

To be honest, if someone called me a "fucking bitch" or something among those lines, then I would be offended. I also don't ever swear directly at a person (unless the situation is too dire), because I know that is something I don't like to be done to myself.

But I think that may be due more to not wanting to hear someone insulting you, rather than the choice of words. I mean, if someone calls me a "bitch", whether it is "fucking bitch" or "mean bitch", I think I would tend to be equally offended.

I still cannot quite figure out how much swearing is appropriate. In a sad sort of way, swearing has replaced a lot of more clever uses of language to express feelings. Perhaps this is why swear words are so often used - the baggage of shock that they carry is many times seen as the most efficient way to express a whole hoard of strong feelings without making much effort.

I remember a teacher once telling our class that those who swear a lot are ones with little knowledge and vocabulary of a language, and that they are crude in general. Hmn...and interesting point of view for this.

via

I had to make a conscious effort to cut down on my swearing habit, and now I think that I only really swear in front of close friends. And I am trying to replace all the f-words with "bullocks" instead - since I can pretend that I am simply using it as a funny Brit expression.

I won't preach anyone on whether they should swear or not, but in general, I am personally trying to cut out my swearing habits. I think there should be better ways to express yourself, and I don't really want to strife to randomly offend people. At least in real life I think I have made some process, but then I usually have outbursts in my blog, which is why many people who know me personally and read my blogs tell me that I sound like two completely different people.

But then again, a good day of swearing in my head never hurt me too much. Especially when I am on a rampage and pissed off at people.

So you tell me: how much do you swear? Are you happy with yourself about that, or is swearing a problem? What do you think: should we care about people who get offended by swear words, or not give a fuck?

To finish off, I shall leave you with a quote from Ralph Fiennes, which perfectly applies to me:

James Lipton: And now for the favourite bit. What is your favourite curse word?
Ralph Fiennes: On a good day fuck, on a bad day cunt.