Tuesday 20 October 2015

"If you swear, you are uneducated"

People these days, don't give a sh*t.

About what you ask? Swearing.  

There are many different views on what is socially acceptable in the world. A large part depends on how you were brought up or what your own beliefs are, but in this world, our opinions on social acceptance are forever changing  as we continue our voyage to find the perfect standard of being. 

For the sake of stereotypes, a traditional, middle-class, old age pensioner may react slightly differently as compared to a young, hip, black rapper when they hear the sentence " I don't give a f*ck". But in this day and age, I would say people are much more tolerating of 'bad language'. 

(By the way, excuse my use of stereotypes, I don't mean to offend anyone, but come on people, they're called stereotypes for a reason). 

Traditionally, the purpose of swearing is used as a shock factor to express your level of anger or other appropriate emotion. Or, only used 'un-intentionally' for extreme pain circumstances, like stubbing your pinky toe on a sharp corner. (That's when you really get to see someone's true colours).

But, there is a question raised in arguments, disagreements, discussions, I've had with people before which i'd like to write about. If you casually swear in your typical register, does this mean you're uneducated/ have a limited vocabulary? 

When I sit back and reflect on my day-to-day vocabulary, I have to admit I do have a tendency to be a 'casual swearer'. I don't mean it in an aggressive or shocking way, nor have I been brought up to use swear words casually. It is simply something I have naturally developed due to a preference of how I express myself. 

To give you a rough idea of how much I consider 'a lot of swearing' as compared to 'none existent', let's use a numerical scale from 1-10. 

A 10 being the articulate manner in which your average Jeremy Kyle guest expresses themselves, to a 1 being an educational commentary by David Attenborough. I'd probably give myself a 6-7. 

From a relatively young age our pure minds are introduced to such words, and then we all grow up into individuals who are capable of using them. Some may have the privilege of receiving a first class education, some may not be so lucky, but at the end of the day no matter who you are, we all share the ability to swear. So just because one person chooses to swear, and another doesn't, does not necessarily mean it's because they're thick and can't think of a more appropriate substitute word. And I think it would be foolish to assume otherwise. 

Obviously there's a time and a place as to where you should and shouldn't swear, but in general I don't think it makes you seem uneducated. We also have to remember swearing isn't just used as one entity in order to shock, it's also use to express a variety functions. 

For example, Steven Pinker, in 'The stuff of thought', lists 5 different ways we can swear: "descriptively (Let's f*ck), idiomatically (It's fucked up), abusively (F*ck you...!), emphatically (This is f*cking amazing), and cathartically (F*ck!)."

So when you look into it, its more than just taboo nonsense. 

Honestly, it's probably not the most polite way of expressing yourself, but if you get your message across loud and clear, and it doesn't get you into too much trouble, then why not? 







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