Have swear words become an indispensible part of our language?
I lost count of the number of times the F-word was spoken when I was watching a movie last night. What was disconcerting was that…well, that didn’t disconcert me! We have probably become so attuned to hearing swear words everywhere around us that they barely count as offensive anymore. I realized that when my dear little brother unabashedly uttered a few expletives in my dad’s presence without probably knowing what they actually mean. That only made me go red in embarrassment and dad go red with anger whilst he sat shamelessly staring at us.
I always believed that the reason people used profanity was probably because it was an easy substitution for nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs alike! Don’t know how to best describe a new car? Say it’s damn awesome! Better still... use the F-word! No, but how about ‘Wow, the car is classy!’ Or powerful, or elegant, or chic, or exquisite, or even gorgeous? Do we resort to the filthy word because we cannot think of the right adjective at the moment? Or is it because they have an uncanny tendency of cosily snuggling right next to a noun and making perfect sense? I had an animated discussion with a friend on the topic yesterday, and trust me, he is extremely generous with his use of expletives. I rephrased his sentences, replacing the swear words with the most suitable adjectives I could think of. I thought I’d made my point until he made me realize that the emphasis was not quite the same. The same sentences when spoken with the expletives somehow seemed to make a stronger statement. And while he has full liberty to use as many bad words as he can, if I did, I would be ‘un-ladylike’ or even loose! So while most women manage to put their points across with suitable adjectives, why can’t men? It’s a question that they can answer best.
Meanwhile, I read an article about a few profanities becoming so commonplace that they are being considered for addition to the dictionary. Darn, I hope that doesn’t freakin’ happen soon!
11 comments:
well .... wat shud i say .... its f...ing true yaar ..........
bahut sahi hai.. an eye opener...
absolutely...even i gotta stuck with the addiction of f word :P
Although we have moved in the 21st century and thought to be ahead of our ancestors in numerous ways, we are still have d same tendency to condescend to others' levels, getting accustomed with the current system (good or bad)....I accept that its more prone to men bcoz they have always got superiority over opposite sex in dis world, so how dis aspect got left away? It hardly matters whether its in obscene matters or not...
Welcome back to Blogging....:)
Wow.. well said appy.. I mean we have become so used to this lingo language that its hard to NOT use it when v r addressing each other.. The F word.. n other synonyms js come out effortlessly .. U're so true in the fact that a few years ago using such words in front f our parents made us go red in the face.. bt today they r part of everyday lang.. dat kinda sucks.. excuse my language.. bt it does !
N u're sooooo right abt the point u mentioned in the end.. wen females use such lang. they r considered loose n wat not..v certainlly need to change our thinkin on that factor if we have become so ready to accept this kinda lang... nice post.. rly thought provoking... !
@Baljinder - thanks, i know i'm back after a long hiatus but will definitely be more regular now.
@Rohan - You are absolutely right. Its become second nature for us to speak without thinking, and we definitely need to be more careful. Girls and guys alike!
@ Sachin, Vikram, Sudeep - Thanks for visiting :)
:) :) its true .. mostly in hostel haha .. i can gen avoid using such words .. coz in the end " muh toh apna hi ganda ho raha hai na " :)
A very sensible post and a great read!!
Well its true that every one is using swear words. The reason i see is it just is far more appealing if u use say the F-word. All other words see just routine that at times we tend to ignore what's being said.
And so very true that when a girl uses the language, she's termed loose and stuff. Well this Indian is still male centric. No matter how much we talk about women empowerment, look in the so called modern families, its still the women who manage the households, at times even take away the husband's dishes. The country has a long way to go before we see gender equality in the society.
And sorry, havn't been visiting the blog regularly... :)
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