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Today's Children Are Officially Potty Mouths
tetrahedrassface writes "When the Sociolinguistics Symposium met earlier this month swearing scholar Timothy Jay revealed that an increase in child swearing is directly related to an increase in adult swearing. It seems that vulgarity is increasing as pop culture continues to popularize vulgarities. The blame lies with media, public figures, politicians, but mostly ourselves. From the article: 'Children as young as two are now dropping f-bombs, with researchers reporting that more kids are using profanity — and at earlier ages — than has been recorded in at least three decades.'"
So fucking what? /sarcasm
what is this shit? i don't even....
That it's not profanity anymore. Is damn considered profanity any longer. At one point that was as harsh as Fuck is today.
If curse words become a part of normally accepted speech, what the hell will we use for curse words then???
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
No shit Sherlock !
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
When those children are adults, it will no longer be considered profane. Problem solved.
as my toddler would say, that's fucked up!
Monkey see, Monkey do. I have noticed an increase in the amount of swearing that adults do too. I'm guessing also that parents aren't beating their children (spanking) or rinsing their mouth out (with liquid dish soap) as much either.
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My grandparents said the same thing about my parents.
The more people do things, the more they think is normal, the more culturally accepted that is.
My nephew just turned 4 a little while back. Sadly, he has a speech impediment that has made him difficult, if not impossible, to understand until very recently. Over over the past 6 months or so his speech has improved considerable and we finally know... that the kid swears like a sailor, he's probably been swearing for years and no one ever knew it. Seriously, we're all in the kitchen and we hear "Holy shit!" come out of the living room, go in to see what's going on and he's watching Sesame Street. Obviously we tried and failed to not laugh, so I can't imagine we helped the situation any.
... blame the parents. The media just reflects what is acceptable to society.
I've always wondered though why Americans get so upset about bad language and sex, but violence on TV is ok for children to watch.
I don't swear for the hell of it. Language is a poor enough means of communication. We've got to use all the words we've got. Besides, there are damn few words anybody understands -- Spencer Tracy (Inherit the Wind).
That said, we never curse in our house. Neither have our children (age 10 and 8) other than to ask about a word they've heard.
One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Swearing is relative to a perceived base.
On the old people stodgy baseline it is all swearing, even "boobies".
On the young people base line "fuck" is emphasis mark.
Language changes. Swear words are something that change quite quickly.
All that has happened is that our circumstances are now always at that extreme.
Dave
...please, please, think of the children!
These are fucking lies, godamnit!!!
Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
I personally cannot see the problem if people or children swear. People seem to be shocked or surprised (or pretty much anything going in that direction) when they hear a child swearing. But what's the problem? They're words. I've failed to understand the issue for years now. They're just some words that seem to have a bad karma for pretty much no reason.
Could someone kindly tell me what the big idea is? Thanks.
Maybe it's their damn parents imparting an unrealistic sense of self importance in them.
Kids today think they can do what ever they dang well please since by and large their folks allow them to. I think this translates directly into these little monsters lack of proper social etiquette and respect for anyone around them.
It would be interesting to further break this down into geographic subsets. Since I have lived in Germany, I have noticed that most folks put the hammer down on their little ones.
I have never had a teen or kid call me anything other than Mr.
It all comes down to bad parenting. They should have called the article, "Most parents destroy their kids".
I find this to be a bit depressing. Generally, I view swearing as a demonstration of a lack of emotional self control or evidence of a limited vocabulary to effectively express thoughts or feelings. From the larger perspective, it reflects a general lack of civility in our society. Little kids don't choose their language, they only reflect the language of those around them. Pretty sad when the supposed parents of a small child end up teaching this at such a young age.
Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
Bullshit.
I'm not an expert, but I play one on slashdot.
I don't know how others feel, but I've never felt some sort of stigma against using swear words. The only time I refrain is when it's socially unacceptable (i.e. at a funeral) because then other people would potentially become upset towards me. At my funeral though? I'm going to encourage it. From the grave.
It's time to change the expression from curse like a sailor to curse like a 2-year old.
I have never understood the stigma about swearing. They are words, just like any other. What really is the difference between saying "I took a dump" and "I took a shit"? They mean exactly the same thing, but for some reason shit is a dirty word.
It is all about how you use words, not the words you use. You can be just as vulgar and mean without using "swear" words. Is it really less offensive for me to say "The best part of you squirted out of your father's substandard size penis and rolled down that chunk of lard your mother called a thigh" than for me to say "Holy fuck that is cool"?
Words are just words, it's the meaning behind them that matters.
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
I think they learn it from Q*Bert.
These goddamn kids are diluting the strength of words. I'm going to have to get creative now. The trick I think is to combine things that multiply the strength of the words. Here are some examples of profane combinations, and please don't let the kids get wind of them:
"Jesus Fuck!"
"Christ's Tits!"
"Mother of God's Firm Ass!"
"Jesus Raped!"
I could go on..
You say children as young as two years are saying "fuck"?
Did anybody else think of this?
Let q be a radix > 1. I am in ur base-q, killing 10 d00ds.
There's possibly cultural effects too. With international travel so popular, more relaxed cultures are 'tainting' the nanny-states.
I'm from a country town in South Australia where certain sentences were just standard. Because of this, my American stepson learned his first sentence from me: "Shit, that's hot!"
I had opened the door of the car that had been shut up in the cool Arizonan Summer Sun and been pelted with a hot gust that was in excess of 130F from inside the car. (I know it was in excess of 130F because I'd left a souvenir thermometer in there and it had burst)
Meanwhile, my wife-at-the-time was 20-odd metres away when I made that quiet statement of fact. For the next 20 minutes, he happily exclaimed to everyone that "Shit that's hot!"
That was ove 13 years ago and I still haven't lived it down!
Telling people not to swear is basically censorship. Guess what- censorship doesn't work, as aptly demonstrated by this video.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
That's funny because I just watched Kick Ass last night and the little girl in that movie is definitely a potty mouth!!! Actually had me interested in watching the behind the scenes to see if they addressed the fact that they had her say such things.
Shit piss fuck cunt cocksucker motherfucker tits.
These words will always exist. People will just come up with new ones. It's been done on TV enough. (Someone should compile a list of TV swear-words.)
Its because of that damn MTV and Hip-Hop!
You hit the nail on it's head. What is offensive to some is only natural to others, and the other way around.
Objectively I'm inclined to agree that 'bomb' registers higher on a natural 'offensive-scale'. But I firmly believe no word can truly be 'offensive', it's only the intent...
I personally only take offense at people taking offense...
the benefit of having curse words, or "forbidden" words as someone else posted, is the power they hold. if everyone feels free to drop f bombs and such at will, then the word loses its power to express the intensity of emotion behind a good f bomb from someone normally reserved in speech. nizo hit the nail on the head.... "what the hell will we use for curse words?"
This isn't much of a surprise to me anymore. In previous generations we idolized decent, intelligent, articulate and educated people. Somewhere it was decided that nobody can or should have to aspire to be any of those things and we should just aim for mediocrity because EVERYONE can be mediocre!
At least in the US I am seeing this perpetual dumbing-down of the culture (some will argue here that the US culture was pretty dumb to begin with hehehe). Instead of "dressing for success" kids now wear these pants that sag down to their knees. This is a holdover from the prison culture where clothes are baggy and ill-fitting. Reality TV idolizes people who are often foul, vulgar, have no education and oh yeah, don't have any kind of gainful employment. What do we learn from shows like The Hills or Jersey Shore? Instead of keeping rigid and tough education requirements, public schools in the US have been dumbed-down so that "everyone gets a chance." Well I have some news - in the real world, nobody gets a chance, you have to work your ass off to get anywhere.
The less profane it will become, as it will be more accepted. At some point saying "fuck" in any way will cease to become a profanity.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
I swear occasionally and sometimes more than I should. But I do make effort to keep it in check; for example, I never swear at work and I avoid swearing in front of my daughter. I don't have a problem with swearing, but I absolutely think it's a sign of class or lack thereof. Whenever I come across someone who's every second word is a swear they just come off as stupid like they don't care about having a good presentation. And too many people seem to have this immature notion that swearing makes you an adult.
If swearing is becoming the norm; then profanity becomes just another word. Profanity has power only because of it's out-of-the-ordinariness. As my father-in-law told my son when he heard him repeat something he heard on the bus but did not understand -- "Save that, you may need it someday."
I think curse words are valuable, when used properly. Since they are curse words, they can carry a tremendous amount of weight. I curse very infrequently (maybe a few times a year) on purpose: if you hear me swearing, you know I am trying to convey an *intense* emotion. The people who know me know that if I use a curse word, something serious is going on. When you have everyone cursing every three seconds, yeah, it's meaningless.
So fucking what indeed.
They are just words and social convention. Maybe were just moving to the point where swearing isn't considered bad anymore.
Words, they are just that...just words...over the years we have had many swear words that eventually are lost in time or become part of the language. It is about time to incorporate the 7 dirty words as regular everyday words that should have no more attention paid to them than any other explicative. * Shit * Piss * Fuck * Cunt * Cocksucker * Motherfucker * Tits If you are substituting words for these so called swear words, why is that any better...might as well just use the word instead of sounding semi-retarded. Fuck is not Fudge, Friggin, or what ever word is the current replacement Shit is not Shoot, Darn, Poop Really people!!! Really...how childish is that to hear words like that from an adult. If you don't use the real word, then you are missing out on how good it can feel, especially when you start to swear in other languages. Also I have a 2 year old and i give him free reign on any word he so chooses. You use your words and I will use mine...thanks!!! I love the French language. I have sampled every language, French is my favourite - fantastic language, especially to curse with. Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculé de ta mère. It's like wiping your arse with silk, I love it.
What do people who use foul language constantly say when they are really angry. You can't use foul language because there is no difference from the way you normally talk. I'm saying that swearing is OK but keep it to a minimum. I quickly take notice when people that rarely swear actually do swear, I know immediately that they are really ticked off.
I once say a movie that used the F-bomb so often that it ruined the movie. The percentage of vulgarity was over half of the dialog. It was so bad that you couldn't tell if the actors were supposed to be angry.
For what i know (my grandparents and its grandparents and so forth) the public/people have always been potty mouths, it was with the 'boom' of the 'media' that everything started hiding behind political correctness and hypocrisy embezling itself with 'fancy' misapropriated words/terms to try to project rightousness over thyself.
It's just language. The notion of a "bad" word is so fucking adolescent it makes me giggle with disappointment. Why don't we have good words too? I propose "penis" be the official first "good word". Or we could all just work on something tangible..
Kids swearing reminds me of a great scene in Misery. If you haven't seen the film it's worth watching, it's both intringuing horror and somewhat comical (both intentionally and unintentioally). Anyway, romance novel writer Paul Sheldon is being held captive by his insane fan Annie Wilks. She reads a manuscript for his as yet unpublished novel with a more serious tone, and this is her reaction:
Annie Wilkes: It's the swearing, Paul. It has no nobility.
Paul Sheldon: These are slum kids, I was a slum kid. Everybody talks like that.
Annie Wilkes: THEY DO NOT! At the feedstore do I say, "Oh, now Wally, give me a bag of that F-in' pig feed, and a pound of that bitchly cow corn"? At the bank do I say, "Oh, Mrs. Malenger, here is one big bastard of a check, now give me some of your Christ-ing money!" THERE, LOOK THERE, NOW SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!
It's a great scene, mainly because Kathy Bates is so convincing as the mentally deranged Annie. But it does bring up the sort of cognitive dissonance about swearing. What does it really damage? From a philosophical standpoint, it's kind of odd that we humans make words that are considered taboo in the first place. Words have only the power that people give them. For example, others have already mentioned how what's acceptable has changed, and on that subject, I recall talking to my grandmother once about movies she saw when she was a kid. One of them was Gone with the Wind, and when Clark Cable uttered his famous "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" line, she said there was audible gasp in the theater. I can't even imagine the string of profanities needed to make a modern movie-going audience gasp. Actually, I think a string of profanities would have the opposite impact today, people would likely find it absurd at start laughing. So yes, language evolves, but so does society. Perhaps we've moved beyond assigning such power to words. The only exception I can think of is racial slurs, those are more offensive today to many people than they ever were in the past. It's not uncommon to find elderly folks that drop the N-word, not out of hatred or malice, but because that was just what "everyone" called black people when they were growing up. Granted, some elderly folks that use racial slurs are also racists, but it's not necessarily the case either. Things change, and not everyone can or will adapt.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
I blame Global Warming...
I'd rather eat a whole bucket of wet shit than another plate of meekrob. --Cartman
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
look at the bright side. at least they're using complete words and not speaking in TXT
... you would have said it too. I think even Elmo dropped the f-bomb.
I have heard that Japanese doesn't have any words that could be considered to be profane per se. At least, that's what quite a few manga scanlation translators have asserted on their posts, when they have deign to explain :D
Instead, the Japanese seem to utilize impoliteness and rudeness. So instead of a special word like "Freddy Uncle Charlie Kent", they have a rude form of the word "YOU!", which will serve the same purpose
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
Hey, lookit! Gramps got a hold of the whiskey bottle again. Go back to guarding your lawn from frolicking hoodlums, you great wrinkled buffoon.
I don't have a problem with "swearing" per se. But I get depressed when I see people that can't seem to form a sentence without interjecting "fuckin' this" and "fuckin' that" constantly. It makes them look like idiots, and since it _will_ offend a certain set of people, it cuts off any potential conversation with those people.
Don't set your hopes too high for this to become accepted as regular speech.
It will just be another filter to socially determine if you have "acceptable" social skills and manners compared to being part of the masses.
Gook luck talking like that in your job interview, your client's presentation or even on your first date. Speaking like a sailor will only damage your first impression.
Make sure you know when and to whom to say it. When in doubt speak like a prince instead.
You might later discover that your client or your girlfriend speak worse than you BUT if they don't you could have royally f****ed up your chances.
My children swear. I do not discourage this.
What I do discourage is poor swearing. You know, dropping the F bomb every other word for giggles or because it's "fuckin' cool, man. Fuck." How unintelligent.
You do not want your kid to be the only one who retorts insults with "yeah and you're, you're... a mean jerk!"
Profanity is not the problem, it's its gross over-application through poor self control, as well as aggressive hostile application. The self control is the issue: people do not often think before they speak. People are also becoming less literate, so their vernacular is somewhat limited to what their environment provides as fodder.
Swearing is natural. We, as humans, were "swearing" long before we had swear words: bang your toe and you're going to utter nonsensical shit under your breath. You may swear. In such an instance, swearing provides us a mechanism to channel lower level brain functions ("this hurts, I must respond") into a symbolic, understandable context which (in my experience) helps diffuse the lower function urges (punching the wall, punching the other person back).
Yeah, that's right. I think I just said swearing is demonstrative of a higher brain function.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
kids! Get Off my Lawn! I blame Obama.
Adults are probably using profanity a lot because they are frustrated and stressed by an economy in which middle class positions are continuing to vanish (and pay less), opportunities to achieve upward social mobility (like going to school) are failing to accomplish anything but put one in debt, and lower-class wages are failing to keep up with the cost of living.
As the article mentions, the kids do so because the adults do so.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1941374
Potty mouths from the family. :)
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Belgium!
No surprise, a number of comments have been "witty" and "intelligent" exclamations of surprise (using, gasp, swear words). Yeah, didn't see that coming.
But here's an alternative view to those who don't see what the fuss is about...
While there is nothing wrong with most sexual conduct, body parts or scatalogical functions, do we really need these words spliced into our conversations? And if the current crop of swear words have lost their impact to shock, are we going to have to put up with more shocking, more grotesque visual imagery to get our point across?
Adding profanities to most sentences doesn't add value and these days rarely adds weight to your point. I'd argue that the increase in swearing has resulted in a decrease in articulation.
So why aren't we asking the question, what's the point of using these words? The dictionary is full of more interesting and descriptive words. Swearing is a complete lack of originality.
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato, according to William L.
Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277
(1953)."
Could somebody explain why this is a bad thing? If people take words less seriously, perhaps we'll stop making wars out of them.
bluHatter
I agree completely. I think that early on, the big aversion to hearing "those words" on TV or movies was that "those words" were for a certain social audience, and probably served some importance social cohesion/in-group signalling function. I know when I was a kid, grandpa used words around me and my dad that he would NEVER use around women, girl children, or strangers. And I my dad never really cared if he found out I was using certain words around my friends, "just so long as he didn't catch me". So at the same time I gained a very diverse vocabulary and also learned when to use it.
wouldnt everyone then have to be mediocre at mediocrity then. The trouble is those who excel at mediocrity become the new elite and hence can no longer be considered mediocre.
Another example: "A cock and bull story" used to mean "lies" or at least "inflated nonsense", a usage dating back to the early 18th century, at least. From this we get "bull session", an expression meaning a sharing of such stories, something like "shooting the breeze", whose etymology meaning "talking together for the sheer fun of it" is pretty obvious, along with it's connotations of ease, leisure, and the like. "Bullshit" for the prior expression dates only from about the 1950's and "shooting the shit" (which makes me think of using a small pile for target practice), slightly later.
Don't get me started on donkeys, but this seems to be an unsettling trend....
teleny, friend of cats.
This isn't much of a surprise to me anymore. In previous generations we idolized decent, intelligent, articulate and educated people.
Seems to me your biggest problem is the presumption that dropping an f-bomb means the person isn't decent, intelligent, articulate, or educated.
My entire circle of friends has bachelor degrees or higher. All are intelligent, thoughtful, upstanding individuals. And all of them, given the right setting (say, a few drinks at a bar, or a night of brutal coding) will swear like sailors on leave.
So... who's the unintelligent one? The one who drops the f-bomb, or the one who assumes that swearing equates to some stereotypical archetype of the lowerclass, under-educated bumpkin?
PRISON-culture? You're calling baggy clothes prison-culture? Wow, I hope you realize how psuedo-intellectually racist that is.
Probably not, I'll just get off your lawn then so you can continue blaming the same young people stereotypes for what's wrong with the world today.
There's so many holes is that story it's kinda sad:
1- Please define profanity. Is yesterday's profanity still as much of a profanity today ? Is this black and white, or shades of gray ? Who decides that ?
2- Do children simply talk more now, hence utter more "profanities" in total, or do they utter more "profanities" as a %age of what they say, too.
3- Are adults aware, and have adults always been aware, of all and of the same quantity and quality of utterances by children ?
the whole think, as is, smacks of attention whoring and speaking fees seeking.
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....and the clue is in the word "vulgar." Vulgar language was the language of the people you had conquered. The original words that fuck and shit derive from were the normal everyday equivalents for copulation and deification. Look up the origins of "acceptable" words and their vulgar equivalents and you will see who conquered whom.
Careful, apparently highlighting the OPs bigotry could result in a -1 flamebait mod... fucking (yeah, that's right) idiot moderators...
I was beginning to wonder if there was anyone left who actually understood the subject.
It's kind of like that saying, "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." I posit the corollary, which I saw some time back:
"Profanity is the inevitable linguistic crutch of the inarticulate."
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
Yeah, it's a little depressing to me. I will curse occasionally (especially alone and in an aggravating traffic condition) but the "Who cares?" attitude bothers me. Like, when I used to hang out on Second Life, someone admitted to being a minor and thus wasn't supposed to be on the main grid but in a place for teenagers, and in response to this, the person she said this to typed out "Holy #^#@%@!" except without the Q*Bert filter. I sighed and the older (twenty-something) kept asking in whispers why, so I explained myself and she had an attitude of, well, they can hear it on so many places, so who cares whether I say it or not?" and in some other online place where a room had a set of guidelines about allowable behavior, someone who would promote the rules as long as they were particular rules she favored used the f-bomb (against the rules) on someone who was a registered minor, who immediately disconnected. I feel that whether it's common in schoolyards is beside the point and I wish strangers around children would care more.
I agree with you about the trend toward mediocrity and dumbing-down. But mediocrity also gives a kind of freedom because when you are good people do not usually leave you alone.
PVP Online makes comedy out of the discomfort some people feel in the presence of a potty mouth.
Personally, my belief in free speech is strong enough that I do not care what words a person uses to express ideas. However, there are ramifications for how a person expresses those ideas; similar to how there are consequences for how society reacts to the clothes a person wears.
All I could think about while reading the summary was that we should start passing out packs of Orbitz. ^_^ (I really seriously love those commercials.)
Unfortunately this is not limited to the US. American pop culture reaches more parts of the world through the media and the internet than any other culture. And somehow children all over the world take what they see happening in America to be cool and something they should follow. For example, reading and having an interest in classical music is considered nerdy and uncool in most parts of urban India.
http://spongebob.nick.com/videos/play/sailor-mouth-full-episode/
Related to this, I've seen more TV-MA rated shows (The Whitest Kids Y'know, Eastbound and Down, others) that include child actors, often with the grown-ups swearing like drunken sailors and/or having "thematic" discussions with kids in the scene. I often wonder, how does this work? Do the kids actually get to see the show afterward? Do the adults use stand-in words with the kids and dub in the naughty bits later?
Also, the standards bar has moved when it comes to humor that's considered acceptable for children. For instance there was a time in the US when any sort of toilet humor would have gotten slapped with an R rating (think Blazing Saddles) and been barred from broadcast TV and non-premium cable channels. Now jokes about farting and shit make regular appearances in kids cartoons (check out Johnny Test and Total Drama Island.) I'm no prude, but considering the impact even vanilla cartoons can have on kids when they become adults (furries, cosplay, etc.), we can expect all kinds of weirdness coming off the assembly line now.
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
I learned this when I was 7.
motherfuckingcocksuckingtittysmokingtwoballbitchingasshole
The OP is factually correct and does not even discuss race. Watch any documentary about gangs. The guys that started the trend tell you it comes from their lives spent in prison. You are projecting your own racism upon the comment.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Such nonsense. The fact that someone uses some words that you don't approve of for normal use, despite the fact that they have the exact same meanings as other words that for some reason are acceptable, has very little to do with who one idolizes. Use of these subjectively unacceptable words and phrases does not in any way constitute a representation of how decent, intelligent, educated, articulate, or industrious someone is. Your argument is the same tired old chestnut about how things were better in the old days because you had to walk uphill in the snow and youngsters respected their elders.
I'll get off your fucking lawn now, sir.
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
The real problem lies in the fact that people are no longer motivated to memorize hundreds of adjectives anymore. A single, pathetic, unceremonious, four-letter word is so much easier to use than an array of seven or even ten letter ones.
Deadwood on HBO a few years ago literally made cussing an art form.
A must hear for all the cuss-word aficionados out there.
The blame lies with media, public figures, politicians, but mostly ourselves.
The implication that something bad has occurred is nonsense.
A certain selection of words has become more common over the years, so what?
If you watch a late 80's or early 90's action film, it's likely it is riddled with constant swearing from start to finish and its almost surprising when your used to modern films which are largely devoid of swearing. That said if you play any MMO game that is simple enough for kids to play, you will likely read or hear the worst language you have ever had the misfortune to be exposed to.
> The blame lies with media, public figures, politicians, but mostly ourselves
Yes, and our records have secret messages to Satan when you play them backwards too.
Look, I learned to swear way most kids did here, Public school. I don' think its more swearing. I think it is that kids are no longer afraid to do it in front of people that aren't there age.
Swearing can be blamed on two things I think, 1: Peers 2: Parents. If I feel something is inappropriate for my children I cut them off at my end.
On the other hand., This kind of drama over a word is really pointless anyway.
--- Always remember. 99.36% of all statistics are inaccurate.
Swearing or cursing as a habit during general discourse is a bad thing because it is a sign of both mental weakness and lack of self control. Have you heard about the study that found that dogs bark because they don't know what else to do? People curse because they can't find anything else useful to say. Sometimes it's okay, like when you hammer your finger by accident. But wolf puppies bark, and as they grow more mature they bark less or not at all. They are able to intercept the urge, they show the self control to avoid barking. As the mental capacity and self control of people increases, they will curse/swear less. As noted by the article, people are cursing and swearing more, which means it is likely their mental capacity is also diminishing. Recent studies on how Google and the constant barrage of information has a negative effect on cognition may provide a hint as to why swearing is becoming more prevalent. That's my theory.
Get with the times old timer! Its not about the sagging pants, in all about the guys in girls pants. Which is substantially more disturbing. And yup, you guessed I am on your lawn.
Cute, and denial is more than just a river in Egypt.
Lawbreakers have always been popular in culture, from mafiosos, to mobsters, to cowboys, to Robin Hood, to Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.
Trying to rename hip-hop culture to prison culture, and then blaming it for the evils of society is not racist, but pointing out the bigotry is?
Here's a fairly representative sample of an Irishperson's conversation: "I was fucking down that road as fast as I could fucking go before some eejit fuckwit in a fucking huge SUV came out of fucking nowhere. Bollockhead fucker nearly fucking killed me."
This is bad language. Not because of the use of some arbitrary taboo word ("Fuck") but because it's lazy and vague. "Fuck" is used as an adjective, verb and noun.
Next time some moral authoritarian tries to tell you how to speak, make them expain why their own vocabulary is so restrictive and bland.
I don't understand why this is bad. The main fear most parents have about their kids swearing is that OTHER PARENTS MIGHT FIND OUT.
They're just words, they're extremely useful, and people just need to chill the fuck out about it.
The real question is, does this make any difference aside from how we use language, and does it have any significant effect on how youth are growing up? Children using euphemisms to curse adults when angry allows adults to maintain their higher status. By bypassing the euphemisms, children are then enabled more "verbal power." So really, this only matters if the adult can't handle that because they're wrong from the start. I'd be much more worried about a shift in acceptability of sexual violence than this.
This is hardly a new development. Hell, my mom's got a great story about my two-year-old sister, back in the early '70s, dropping an F-bomb to a cashier at a department store in a completely happy and cheerful tone.
Kids're always seeking to emulate older folks - it's how they learn language in the first place, after all - and it only stands to reason that if they're hearing profanity more frequently, they're going to use it, too. They may only have the slighest inkling of what the word actually means, at that age - my sister probably knew that it would elicit a reaction from the other lady, but she likely wouldn't have understood why.
If it's a way to get attention, though, why not use it? Still seems to work, at least in some fashion, whether one is two, fifteen, or forty.
Steady gramps, don't get all worked up, you'll give yourself a heart attack!
http://www.acetonestudio.com
As far as I'm concerned, I don't really care if my kids use curse words - but to have the right to do so they had better have a really good vocabulary of both polite words and so called swear words. It's all about knowing the difference. Swear words should be used intelligently and sparingly and not just spouted out continuously and randomly. Swear words have power. Use responsibly motherfuckers.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
They're just words.
Buckethead
I'm fucking Irish you fucking insensitive fucking clod.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Yes a product of prison culture, but a product of culture. People are amazing things and they're always evolving. The current fashion has been exported around the world, and some say hip hop may just be the BEST product of US culture, in that it is truly american, original and artistically appreciative. Many of the other cultures and traditions here have built on western, native, eastern, et al roots. In this case, the baggy clothes and the rap style music, it's highly american. Be proud, motherfucker.
This happens all the time: the 'vulgar' words will morph, lost their vulgarity, and simply end up as flavoring in speech. OH NO our children use different speech patterns than us THE WORLD IS ENDING!!
Won't someone think of the fucking children?
From my eldest, daughter, aged 2-3:
"Uck's sake mummy, uck's sake" (frustration, learned from Nanny)
"Bollocks" (just randomly said at Sunday roast dinner with my parents - thankfully they were too deaf to notice)
"Ee's a hungry little bugger" (baby brother being guzzling milk - grandad owned up to that one)
"Grandad, you farted, say pardon me!" (thanks again, Nanny Potty Mouth)
But despite all the curse words, none of them were as cringeworthy as when, at her 3rd birthday party, she laid on her back, pulled up her skirt and shouted to all and sundry:
"TICKLE MY LA-LA!"
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
And on the opposite end of the spectrum, Russian is a swear-word rich language with the largest swear vocabulary of any language that I know of. Whereas English has its seven dirty words, Russian has entire dictionaries devoted to explaining all the swear words and phrases.
I saw an interview with Frank Zappa when I was younger, and I think he hit the nail on the head. He said (paraphrasing, it was a long time ago...) "They're only _words_! If you give them no weight, then their meaning is worthless to kids and they won't bother saying them!" What was so unbelievable was that the interviewer didn't "get it". I was maybe 20 at the time, and I most certainly did, and I think he was absolutely correct. If the parents tell the kid "Don't say the f-word, it's bad!", the kid will do it... because it's bad! Because the word has "weight". It's the human condition - kids long to be "bad", to do things that adults don't like.
Case in point: My coworker has a 2 year old daughter, who picked up "What the Fuck!" from someone. She saw the opportunity to shock mommy and daddy one day, so she drops the F bomb. Dad cautioned mom against saying anything to the daughter at all... just to ignore it. The daughter hasn't said it since. Had they made a big deal about it... you bet they would have heard it again... even the 2 year old knows what is "bad" and wants to say it.
"To make a mistake is only human; to persist in a mistake is idiotic." Cicero
I've said what I wanted in the title.
Shakespeare was considered vulgar in his time.
You are so correct! People who are only capable of speaking in total profanity are so employable and so admirable. They are society's success stories. Yes the ghetto people in the back of the bus and on the street corner who most people choose to avoid or walk on the other side of the street from. We should teach all our children to talk like that because it is the way of the future. I hear so many doctors, professors, lawyers and other educated folk talking all ghetto or redneck all the time. It gives me total reassurance in their abilities. This has nothing to do with old age or the "past", this is a perversion of societal norms.
To any and all time-travelers reading :
If ever I gain use of a time machine, you can be sure that I will devote my time to pranking every and all.
I'm not sure if you would consider that a threat or a promise.
You know how to reach me...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
People can speak and act differently in different circumstances. I do not act and speak the same way at work as I do at home or with friends. Where did I ever say anything about people who are only capable of speaking in total profanity? I said that just because someone uses words that YOU find profane doesn't mean they are unintelligent. This has nothing to do with ghetto people. I went to a university to earn my bachelor's and am currently pursuing a master's degree, but I'll cuss like a fucking sailor if I want to. The point I was trying to make, jackass, is that every single generation accuses the following generation of "perversion of societal norms". No shit, genius. Societal norms change when new generations emerge and start to take over the culture. The fact that you refer to it as a perversion is simply a matter of perspective, such as it has been for every single generation since civilization began.
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
belgium!
how is it racist? OH I get it cause only non whites go to prison in your little world right?
Well golly gee wilikers, I'm as shocked as a June Bug at a power station.
Slowly waving my hand - "This is not the sig you are looking for."
"Some walking piece of trash just shot John F. Kennedy..."
The first time I heard this quote, I was amazed that the speaker could so eloquently and forcefully communicate what even the strongest of swear words would not. It's not so much that swearing is offensive and vulgar, but rather so often communicates little more than the mental feebleness of the speaker. Having grown up swearing, I found myself unable to express disapproval of something without using vulgarity, and without really saying much important. I had to learn to think before I spoke, to articulate what I was trying to say, instead of merely informing everyone within earshot that I could think of nothing more discriptive, nothing more enlightening to the hearer, than a litany of profanity.
Even though I realize some people have no moral problem with swearing, there's almost never a good reason to use it in casual conversation.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
I have a friend who swears in French when ever he gets "hit his thumb with a hammer" upset.
He says "FLOCONS DE MAIS!!!" which is French for "Corn Flakes!!!"
He's an Anglo living in Québec so he doesn't really know the choice words or how Québecers can string them together into interesting and colorful expressions. :-)
Plus swearwords really don't translate well.
A literal transliterration (as opposed to a translation) of swearwords across almost any linguistic/cultural barrier makes for absolutely hilarious dialogue in plays.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Whoever came up with the idea of using "f-bomb" to avoid using "fuck" needs to be shot
fuck off nigger
What does it matter? Oh right, we're in a country where societies social rules and regulations are still uselessly based off of christian morals... well fuck that, I have better things to worry about than if my (or some kid's) actions please some invisible man in the sky and his annoying son.
What does your rant have to do with cursing? There are scores of intelligent, articulate, educated people that curse. Listen to that inarticulate fuckwit Christpher Hitchens for example. Then your rant goes off on some sort of entitlement society, nevermind that our hardest working folks are working low paying jobs like construction and fruit picking. Meanwhile, in the "real world", the money is made by people who have money.
Pro-tip, using "hehehe" in a comment doesn't really bolster your diatribe against "dumbing down" of America. It is slightly depressing that your comment made it to a +5 rating.
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
At work - I have noticed over the decades the increasing use of profanity and vulgarities. Im probably guilty too. I remember my first job in the 80's was at a large brokerage firm. This was back in the days when one could smoke in the office and after office parties might end up in a strip club. However, the language was not nearly as bad as it is now.
I remember one woman ,who was a brand new Harvard MBA, when giving a presentation would use profanity, pause looking over her glasses, and wait for the shocked expressions on our faces. I overheard her boss later chastising her saying that he expected someone with her education to be able to express herself better.
Now - I have had actually had men and women of all education levels swear in a job interview. They may have gotten the jobs but the language was a strike against them.
Shit what the fuck do those pussy whipped cunt lickers know about piss, let alone linguistics? I bet some motherfucker became a cocksucker because his ma ma wouldn't let him suckle on her tits as a baby. (insert sarcasm here along with a very bad impression of Geroge Carlin)