Swearing is a funny thing. We react to it in many different ways, some of us find it horrifying and some find it one of their favorite ways of communicating. But then again I'm born and raised in Ireland where we throw out swear words faster then Lib Dems throwing out morals in exchange of "power". Key word there being "almost".
So I'm accustomed to swearing in nearly all forms of communication weather it be speak, text or hand gestures. But I think there's more to swearing then what meets the eye (or ears...I may have picked a tricky sentence to end it on... ah well).
Now, for the benefits of the Huffington Overlords currently reading this at their desks and slamming down on a "PANIC" button, I will not swear at any point in this blog...unless I feel like it (that is a joke! [The "feeling like it" bit not the "not swearing" bit {Wow this post really is a minefield, isn't it?
Anyway! If you think about it, swearing really is a fascinating subject when you think about it because when it comes down to it, isn't swear words just words like any other? But if that's the case then why do people find them so offensive? Probably because we know when a person uses these words that they mean to be offensive, which really makes swearing more of an act. When we swear we are really just showing others how we feel.
But isn't that what all words do, I hear you not ask? Yes, but for some unknown reason, we, as humans, react more to these select words then any other. I can pretty much guarantee that each and every one of you will pay more attention to a man who swears during conversation then a man who doesn't. For some reason we believe that they feel more strongly about a topic then the man who doesn't. But why? They are just words after all, aren't they?
The truth, of course, is that the only power words have is the power we give them. The best example for this is probably the incident that occurred between Liverpool player Luis Suárez and Man U player Patrice Evra last year. As you may remember, Suárez called Evra a profanity, which I won't say for the reason that I'm a decent human being, but the interesting thing is that Suárez didn't think he was swearing but Evra, and the rest of the western world for that matter, thought he was. That's because over here we are told that that word is wrong but to Suárez the word is on the same power as calling someone "ginger".
To fully understand this imagine going to say Vanuatu, walking up to a man with ginger hair and calling him "ginger" and watch the whole country take a step back in horror and disgust at the verbal abuse you've just thrown at this poor, innocent ginger person who has now broken down in tears after you've just reminded him of his standing in the social order of Vanuatu due to his hair colour. This just goes to show that the only meanings words have are the ones we, the public, give them.
Another aspect of swearing that people love to talk about is social class. If I was to introduce you to a working-class brick layer and a upper-class executive, who would you expect to be the one to start swearing first? Me too. We just can't imagine posh people swearing, can we? It's just odd to think of a man like David Cameron swearing at a referee during a U12 football match (it's an Irish thing) and if we did we would no doubt find it gut-wrenchingly hilarious. But why don't they? Do they not feel emotion like the rest of us? Deep down we know that posh people want to roar profanity at Justin Bieber and the like just as much as the rest of us.
Most people deem swearing as bad language and refrain from doing it as much as possible but what's wrong with using these words to express your anger and frustration? Why is it impolite and unacceptable to express anger and the darker side of human nature, which we all have no matter how much we deny it. That human nature that makes us laugh when someone falls over in public, the reaction to roar a "certain word" when we stub our toes and our sense of humor that makes Jimmy Carr employable. We all know it's there, why do we bother to hide it?