Oh, I am going to be showing my age with this one….
Swearing used to be a rite of passage. As a youngster, you didn’t dare use “damn”, or “hell” or else your tongue would turn black and fall out of your mouth. Or so my Mother told me, and I believed her. She was my Mom, for heavens sake. Mom wouldn’t lie. And I never heard her use those words.
Now my Dad was a different breed of cat. If he smacked his finger with a hammer a string of the forbidden words would come out of him like a river busting a dam. Or damn….see what I did there? Clever. But once that torrent was out, if I were around he would admonish me to not use that kind of language, and also not to tell Mom.
And then there were my brothers. Older siblings are a wonderful gift to those of us who are at the end of the propagation chain. Older sibs blaze the trails that us younger ones will be exploring years later. Older sibs also wear our parents down so that us younger ones get away with a lot more than what our older sibs did. It is a glorious arrangement….for us youngers.
Anyhoo….the point that I am trying to make is that I learned more of how to use curse words from my brothers than I did from my parents. So, you might ask? So, in todays world the use of expletives is gotten to be common place.
Common place in daily casual conversation by young and old. The use of some curse words that were explicitly NOT to be used in public have become very common place.
And you know which ones I am talking about. Interspersing the F-word, and specifically the C-word in conversation has become that norm.
I don’t necessarily find it offensive…the language you use is your business, but I do find it interesting how people like to push the boundaries of what is acceptable. When I would be dealing with an upset customer, it was always interesting to me as to how quickly they would go from regular language to cursing at me depending upon whether they were going to get their way or not. With women it happened a whole lot quicker than with men. It was as if women had to get aggressive quicker to show that they meant business, whereas men would go into debate mode. And that isn’t true of every interaction I had with customers. Not every person reacts the same way.
How do you react to the use of curse words in conversation? Have we become immune to it? Does it underline our lack of civility? Did we ever have any civility to begin with? Is this behavior something we want our children to exhibit as they grow and go out into the world? I have my thoughts, but I am really interested in hearing yours.
Comment link is at the bottom. I look forward to hearing what you have to say. Even if it is full of swear words…..
2 comments
Comment by Mike cade on February 23, 2014 at 11:57 pm
Sorry… many will disagree with me. But I do find it offensive. I deplore that movie writers and directors feel the need to include the use of “foul” language. I just don’t understand why there is a need for it outside of hitting your thumb with a hammer (which I have been known to do as well… but never had a father or sibling teach me that. Hmmmm).
In coaching, I have found many younger high school coaches that would yell obscenities at their players in practice… oh, but never at a public game or in front of parents (hypocrites). I found that those who were publicly insensitive in using “foul” language around their players or students to also use put down or a destructive use of words towards students as well. I asked a 26 year old coach/teacher why he felt it necessary to curse at them and he explained that it was the best way to motivate and get their attention (even in his classroom). I asked him if he felt it was acceptable language in the workplace or in “all” homes… and he said no. I then asked why an “educated professional” educator felt he could only motivate by using foul and degrading language? Was he taught that in college… He said no, but then commented that that is real life and they might as well get use to it now. In 30 years, I have only had one of my customers or their production staff use foul language around or with me in any situation – good or bad (Midwest or a Bible belt area maybe).
I once road with a man to a game in an effort to get to know him better. In a 30 mile trip, I heard the “F” word a 100 times if not 200. When I politely asked him to refrain on they way back… He found nothing much to say (and needless to say he did not reach back out to me again). Many that swear are as insensitive towards others as some smokers had become when it seemed it was considered inappropriate to smoke around non-smokers. It is the same with swearing with many. Hey, they have freedom of speech… but they have no common curtiousy. Many today care less about offending others
My own grown and professional children get it. My teams get it, but hear it so much that they are becoming insensitive as well. I only hope I am a better example then the others.
Comment by wormdude@gmail.com on February 24, 2014 at 7:33 am
Mike, again, you and I come from pretty much the same era and and area. I don’t remember any of my coaches using other than the very occasional “damn” or “hell”. I do not remember ever hearing anything worse from them, even in the most dire of games. Freedom of speech is not what people think it is….yes, you are free from government imposing a ban on what you can and cannot say, but you are not free from what consequences that speech might bring.
Thank you, again, for commenting.