English is my second language, and culturally where I'm from swearing is pretty normal and nobody gives a fuck anyway.
It's only swearing because at some point someone decided it was bad language, and if you pay close attention, a lot of them go with "taboo" topics like sex and religious items. And then everyone proceeds to substitute them like fuck/fudge, shit/shoot, bitch/bench which IMO, you might as well have said it, everyone knows that what you were thinking.
Language is language and sometimes a good choice of colorful expletives is what drives the meaning. Getting offended by swears is a sign of fragility of the mind.
Swearing is actually normal for all people. Any word can be classified as a "swear" or "bad" word. That's how language works. There is nothing wrong with using a word that is deemed a cuss word. The actual "bad" part is always the context the word is used in. If you smacked your foot into a chair accidentally and you called the chair a Bastard, you used the expletive correctly. But if you walked into work one morning and walked by your boss and said to him, "Good morning you Bastard.", that's going to get you in trouble. The context matters.
You can make any word a cuss word in the context you use it. You can ask a person if they like Bananas, "Are you a banana eater?". Or you can accuse a person, "What kind of a sick banana eater are you? What is wrong with you?", 'banana eater' is now a bad phrase/thing.
Context in language always matters, regardless of the taboo of a word/phrase.
Words only have power over you if you let them. Language is to be used, enjoyed and laughed at.
Because I don't let prudes tell me what I can and can't say unless they're paying me.
Because words have different weight for different people. I feel like Americans are so sensitive about words like "fuck" (and many other words). Here in the Netherlands I grew up with much more liberal use of swear words. So to me it's way less harsh to say "fuck this rain" or something, it's just a way to communicate my feelings about the rain, just like I'd say "kutweer" in Dutch. Saying it in a more eloquent way, i.e. "this rain is pretty suboptimal" would not accurately convey my feelings.
From a historical perspective, it's stranger that swearing isn't normal for some people; it seems to be a universal feature of human languages throughout history and around the world.
The exact swear / taboo words vary of course, but in general it does seem like just about every culture ever has had and used swear words.
I've read that swearing is the sign of an honest person.
Studies have shown that swearing makes dealing with pain easier.
As I understand it, shit, piss, and fuck were common words in Old English. When the French-speaking Normans invaded the Anglo-Saxons, they made the people and their language lower class, crude and dirty. Defecate, urinate, and fornicate were substituted as the proper way to speak. This was a way to continue oppressing a conquered and occupied group of people. These views have persisted for hundreds of years and been adopted by various groups over time. Something to consider when you find yourself viewing the words others use as crude.
Based on this history, you might also see why saying "pardon my French" is ironic as fuck.
They're good words, bret
What the fuck do you mean?
Why not? Why is it not normal for you? Science shows it reduces stress. Lol
You give the word power and meaning by viewing it certain way. To me cuss words have no power they are meaningless. equivalent to a simple filler word. Others around you might give power to cussing, but then why is it your fucking problem that they choose to be simps for a word?
Part of it must be upbringing. I couldn't bring myself to even say the words hate and stupid because they were treated as just as bad as fuck, but since I've moved out and live with a woman who casually swears, it's rubbed off on me.
Why the fuck wouldn't they shitting be?
Because life fucking sucks, unless I'm in a church I'll swear all the fuck I want, life is tortuous enough already, let me have that. And right now I'm angry.
because there's nothing wrong with it
Because we grew up poor.
Laws that turn swearing into legal liability are a form of class warfare.
As others have mentioned, for me I sometimes use it as just filler (part of natural language). Alternatively, I can use it to add emphasis or to exaggerate.
Why is it not for some people? Serious question - seems like a few mixed in here and there would be the norm but I’m not sure tbh. But just based on movies, tv, etc, that’s what I’m accustomed to hearing. And real life too.
Why do some people hide their view on things behind rhetorical questions? People, man. There's a billion different ways to people it up. People man ...Being all different n stuff!
Swearing is viewed as a bad thing mainly because of religion, particularly anything puritanical. It's the equivalent of taking the lords name in vain for some people. When I was in 3rd grade, I said dammit after dropping my coat instead of putting it on a hanger. I learned that word really early cause my mother had been using it since she was 3. My friend heard me and told the teacher, a nun, who pulled me aside and said cursing is never, ever, okay and that it's taking the lords name in vain even if you don't say Jesus or God or whatever. Also said Dammit was one of the worst ones.
So I agree with others here. The question should not be, "Why is cursing normal for some people?" It should be the opposite. Curse words are just words. They don't have power like religion states. They're just words. To whomever doesn't curse, stop letting just words have power over you. They don't fucking matter.
Fucked if I know.
I love that especially in the land of free speech swearing is so much frowned upon. Exactly my kind of humour.
They are used to it and if you try you can get used to it too.
Try playing Sonic the Hedgehog some more and expressing how it makes you feel.
Swearing is like yelling. If you do it often it lessens its effect. My father in law yelled all the time so if he yelled it was just par of the course. My brother swears constantly in casual conversation. I yell or swear and people take notice but not many have witnessed it.
Because fuck you, that’s why!
I mean, even Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales poked fun at the nun for her frequent oaths "by saint Loy" IIRC.
Fuck is just another word
swearing is pretty normal in austria. I know a few people who don't swear and it's even somewhat weird.
Grew up around actual sailors
Hey! Not sure if anyone's still here, but here's a serious answer:
TL;DR: everyone perceives swear words differently, and swearing can be used for purposes other than to insult someone directly
Swear words serve a purpose in language just like every other word. People, or at least many English speaking people that I've encountered, tend to consider rude language/swearing to be superfluous speech, words that can and in some cases should, be removed from the language. That's a misconception. The point and purpose of swear words is to be taboo and rude. If these words didn't exist, they would likely be substituted by something else, because from a sociolinguistic perspective, our society right now has evolved to need a linguistic way to express the things that are conveyed with swearing, even if it's really bad things like racism, disdain, threats of violence.
Now, one of the interesting things about swear words and rude language in general is that everyone perceives these words with a different severity. Some people feel comfortable with saying "cunt" for one reason or another. For example, Australian and British English speakers tend to be more comfortable with that word than American English speakers. For other people, even minced oaths can be considered rude, such as saying "darn" instead of "damn" or "fiddlesticks" instead of "fuck". It could also have to do with background or identity, like women calling each other "bitch" can be considered less severe than a man calling a woman a "bitch". Or someone who's deeply religious could object to the use of "hell" while someone who isn't might not even consider it rude.
Lets get back to the purpose of swearing. Swearing can have many different uses, such as showing you're part of an in group. Imagine a group of women working in a auto body shop together for example. In order to signal to each other that they're comfortable around each other, they might refer to each other as their "bitches". But that doesn't mean that a customer can come in and say "hey bitch I need new headlights": they're not part of the group, they haven't earned that privilege. Swearing is also a rite of passage. Adults get to swear, but we consider a sign of a good upbringing in the English speaking world as a child that does not swear. Throughout all these uses, there's a through line of flaunting social expectations. Swearing can be used to damage and berate and humiliate, of course, but a lot of swearing is done with subtext. "Hey, you're my friend, this is a relaxed environment, of course you're not going to think when I say a rude word that I'm insulting you" or "I'm feeling such a strong emotion right now that the only words that fit that are very rude".
I also think that as our society moves away from more structured and rigid social roles, swearing is getting more acceptable since we in general are more tolerant of deviations from the norm.
Edit: I've obviously only scratched the surface, since this is a broad and complex topic.
I swear I don't know..
Because swearing was strictly forbidden in my household and i picked it up in late high school and early college partially as an act of defiance.
I made friends also more interested in content and quality of thought than on politeness and that was dope AF.
Now it's part of my lexicon, just a casual turn of phrase.
"Ay yo, that shit is fire" conveys the same sentiment as "Wow! That's really cool."
I'm a mechanical engineer and a writer. Words are words. They have meanings and those meanings change over time and with context/audience.
People who don't ever swear feel repressed to me. It's a weird vibe. Not a fan.
They don't give a fuck? You can hear em, moan and yuck
I don't know. Swearing isn't in my day to day vocabulary. I think i just grew out of it. It has it's place, especially for comedy purposes. But if i hear people swear a lot i feel the same way as when i see people spit on the floor. Kinda gross and unnecessary.
They do it a lot so it loses the negative weight.
Fuck if I know.
Gets people's attention.
Because the cunts at social media companies want to censor every fucking thing. I don't want to swear, but I am forced to do so In order to fill the chasm left by any large company deciding to be thought police and robbing us of our ability to use colorful language.
Also the way words "retard" and "retarded" sound is funny, so I opt to use them any time I need to refer to someone or something stupid.
Everything has its place - swearing is great for communicating intense emotions.
But for me, swearing for no reason just makes you appear overly-dramatic, or that you have a limited vocabulary and don’t know a more useful word. I’ll probably ignore half of what you say.
Here’s relevant documentation
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf
- https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/05/08/hammer-nail/?amp=1
Plus y’all are ruining swearing. If everyone is rebelling against social convention, then rebelling against social convention no longer has value. What’s the point of swearing being normal? It no longer has any power or purpose
