Sailors are famous for it, I’m guilty of it, and even children do it – albeit, it’s a lot cuter when they do it.
I’ve read various posts about cussing in blogging and the disdain it seems to induce. Obviously, I have no problem using colorful vocabulary to complement my posts. My favorite, Bumblefuck (used in this post), was actually stolen from Dick Masterson, the author of Men are Better than Women. I generally try to limit my cursing in a way that will not detract from my writing but sometimes throwing in a good ‘fuck’ is just what it needs.
One of my favorite movies is actually named “What the bleep do we know” (it’s a movie on quantum physics, which I blogged about here). Being that we’re all adults here I feel it’s alright to point out that the word being bleeped is obviously “Fuck”. In fact, when that sound is used to block a bad word on tv, I’m sure the majority of people over the age of ten could deduce what curse word the naughty speaker was saying. So what exactly is the point of bleeping them out? At this point in our society is it not somewhat of a joke to think that we’ve never heard a bad word? I understand the need to shield our children’s poor ears, sure. I’m not saying we should let Barney and Friends start singing “I bleeping love you, you bleeping love me”, obviously.
She gives, quiet literally, no fucks as she is a chaste nun and she is singing in a field.
So what constitutes a bad word and at what point does its use become offensive? Can a word even really be bad? Consider the most common offenders; Fuck, Shit, and Bitch. All are versatile and all have actual meanings for actual things. Why was ‘shit’ chosen as offensive while its counterpart ‘poop’ was not? Why would anyone be offended by the proper term for a female dog? Is it not the same thing, although more cumbersome, to say “Man, she was acting like a real female dog.” Does anyone else not see the irony in someone saying they are going to fuck you up? What, you’re going to have sex with me to death? Up where? Balloon ride?! Here, let me go get the lube.
Frankly, I’m much more offended by words like ‘panties’ or ‘fart’. Odd choices, I know, but I literally hate them – they make my tongue feel uncomfortable and dirty. So it is possible that this all comes down to a differencing in opinion. Of course we can’t forget certain words that have a historical context and are offensive due to racial or societal problems. Those words are not included in my definition of ‘curse words’ in relation to this post. (So please don’t go off on me for that, I never have and never will use racial slurs.)
What words make you cringe, if any? How exactly do you define a ‘bad word’?
