February 22, 2012
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BEEEEEEEEEEP! (I Heart Curse Words)
I love a good curse word. Hell, I love a BAD one, too. I didn’t grow up that way. While my parents occasionally cursed around my brother and I, it was very understood that those words were not to be uttered by the under-18 set. So we didn’t.
I think I was 16 and working at my first job before I picked up the “uh-oh” lingo. Whoops.
It has been said that resorting to profanity to get your point across display a lack of education; you fall back on “easy words” to get your point across, instead of “acceptable” ones. I’m a college graduate, and know plenty of “big words”, thankyouverymuch. I’m an educated curser—is that better, or worse?
Research has shown that curse words “perform social and psychological functions, and utilize particular linguistic and neurological mechanisms. Further, swearing is a widespread but perhaps under appreciated anger management technique.”
Big words said by people whom I’m sure use profanity. Sweet.
Apparently, most people use about 80-90 “swears” each day. Sounds about accurate for me.
Oh, I found this particularly intriguing: “men generally curse more than women, unless said women are in a sorority.” I wonder how they concluded that?! Were they recording my sorority sisters’ late-night chats?
Now, my husband and I have long enjoyed a good curse word. When we found out that love bug was on the way a few years ago, we knew our days with profanity were numbered. Husband and I made a pact to stop once he was born.
That was three years ago, and we haven’t f**king stopped. We just can’t. We’ve tried!
We recently revised the pact (thanks to love bug actually talking): foul speech would be reserved for spaces that little ears aren’t in. That’s great, until someone gets hurt.
You know the drill: kid leaves toys out, mom steps on toys, kid laughs, mom curses and does the ouch-ouch dance. You don’t even think about it, but it just HAPPENS. Emotions took over (in this case, “MAN THAT F**KING HURT!), and a resounding *BEEEEEEEEEEEP* came out.
Maybe he didn’t hear it?
No such luck. Love bug treated me to a *beep* or two of his own that afternoon.
S**T.
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Comments (12)
Oh jeeze. Kids pick up language so quickly. It’d be cute if it wasn’t so unfortunate!
You know, this entry has me wondering one thing: Did George Carlin have any kids?
2 comments Jen?
TWO LOUSY COMMENTS AND YOU EVEN PLUGGED THIS THING????
What happened to us?
This is hilarious!
@justfinethanku - yeah, I know. *SIGH*
@janusfiles - He did, one of whom is currently a terribly unfunny comedienne whose only real value is being George’s kid.
Nice. And hilarious story. Hubster and I don’t have kids yet but I imagine a similar problem will develop when we do. I already have to hide my head in shame when I stub my toe on the doorstep, let loose with a few choice words, then turn around to see the little old grandma next door with her mouth gaping open who had, until that moment, been innocently trimming her flowers. Oops.
~Jessica
(No longer on Xanga but you can visit me at Visions of Other Worlds)
Damn 80-90 a day….. I guess I must have a frikin clean month
I tried an experiment at work. I gave my crew a set of instruction and asked them to perform the task, using common language but no swearing. About two thirds of the men, had difficulty comprehending, remembering and executing the instructions correctly.
I repeated the instructions lacing profanities in as I spoke. Their performance improved significantly. I have repeated this experiment several times over the years, each time with the same results.
I then conducted the same experiment in reverse. Giving profanity laced instructions first. Performances were monitored. Later I repeated the instructions without the profanities and there was an actual drop off in their abilities.
While profanity may not always be the most appropriate tool in the language box, it can be quite effin useful at times.
Lulz. Whenever my friend’s daughter is around we say ‘pickles’ instead of swearing or, if we swear, we say the ‘pickles’ immediately after. She seems to only pick up the pickles for some reason rather than the swearing. Side effect: one of her teachers caught her using ‘pickles’ as a curse word at one of the other students
Le girlfriend and I tend to cuss… a lot. However, we babysit two kids and while it’s harder for me to not cuss, she seems to do awesome with the no cussing thing. It’ll slip out on occasions like an automatic reaction but then she’ll tell them that she shouldn’t have said that and it’s not a word to repeat. Keira is going on 4 this year and Liam is going on 2. Thankfully he’s just still babbling and trying to form most words.
LOL! Give it up? If only I could. But I can’t. I’m an artist. I dabble in swears the way most artists will dabble in acrylics or watercolors. I sculpt them into a beautiful representation. I am the Leoardo DaVinci of the swear.
It’s a beautiful thing. Keep it alive. Swear on, my sister. Swear on.