Swearing

BigMamma

I have always said that anyone who swears when having a conversation has a lack of the English language. They swear because they cannot think of a word to use.

Really not true. Swear words are part of the English language; indeed part of any language. Every language I’ve learned has their own version and these are usually the first to be acquired.
I swear and my adult children swear. It doesn’t bother me at all and neither does swearing on Mumsnet.
As above, a strategically placed swear word really does hit the spot.
In other words, oh golly gosh really wouldn’t have cut it when I slipped down a garden step yesterday whilst carrying way too many prunings and sprained my ankle and dinted my head 🤣

Especially, when a politician curses using 4 letter swear words, it is a total disgrace, a lack of education and a show of grand ignorance.

It is disgusting.

I see it as a social faux pas. It’s not appropriate as he or she is supposed to be in authority- it’s equivalent to a teacher swearing in front of children. Ok in the pub, but not at work.

Children learn by example and bad language is unacceptable in front of them. Fortunately I socialize with people who do not swear. I find it offensive and disrespectful.

I mainly swear if I drop something or hurt myself , or a machine is playing up , such as my printer 🤬.
I do swear loads when on my own in my car when another motorist does something stupid or dangerous .
And I do a lot of ffs under my breath.
It’s mostly the f word , I dislike the c and t word .
Other people swearing doesn’t bother me unless it’s in front of children or my elderly mother.
My AC don’t swear in my company and I rarely swore in front of them when they were children or teenagers .
Swearing on tv or in films doesn’t bother me either . Unless my mums present .

I don't like to hear swearing at the best of times, but I do find it offensive when watching TV programmes that seem to introduce words and phrases that I have never heard of. Being quite hard of hearing I display subtitles when available. I find it even more offensive to see these words spelled out in full for our benefit....just wish we could skip the swear words on subtitles. I don't know what all of these expletives add to the programmes, except for the shock factor.

Oh and swearing on mumsnet doesn’t bother me either .
As someone else said swearing is part of the British language now.

I heard my 81 yr old mother say “Buggerations” when she saw the gold Rolls Royce we had hired to get her to her golden wedding anniversary celebrations. I’d never heard her swear and never did again but fortunately got it all on video!
I find it strange that people use the word ‘f…ing’ to describe inanimate objects. A f…ing car for instance can’t have intercourse. I must admit I like a good swear when a DIY project goes wrong or my painful arthritis pain is reaching a crescendo…….. but only if I’m alone.

I swear a bit very occasionally, but it isn’t essential to my life and my speech. I never heard swearing when I was growing up, either at home or at school (private girls-only school), so I’ve never acquired the habit. When I read Lady Chatterly when I was at university - it had just survived an obscenity trial - the supposedly shocking words were completely unfamiliar to me. I gathered their meaning from context. I wasn’t at all shocked, and I’m still not. They’re only words.

My sons don’t swear in front of me, but I’m sure they do at other times. They grew up in a different world.

I’m afraid I can’t stand swearing I can perhaps understand if it’s done in the heat of the moment but not in general conversation. I used to object when in public if some was ffnig and blinding in front of my children, as I never wanted them to think it’s ok to use such poor language. I was brought up in house that swearing showed a lack of respect for others and can remember my gran and mum threatening to was our mouths out with carbolic soap if they ever caught any of us using these words, it must have stuck because to this day it’s not in my nature to swear unless really pushed. My friends and family all tease the life out of me for some of my alternative phrases. Such as instead of for f**ks sake I say for failing out of windows. I know it’s nothing to with education or intelligence that people uses these words for most it’s a habit.

Tiley didn't say she agrees with slapping. She said we would have got slapped, as we weren't allowed to swear. Which is true for many. I agree, the swearing is terrible now. No need for it.

Don’t use c* or t**t. Only use f* in extreme circumstance but confess to using bollocks and bloody quite often.
Orlin talks a lot of bollocks sometimes and nothing says how big something is like bloody enormous.

Excuse me, but where have you all been since 1970?

That, as far as I remember, was the time when I, aged 21 then, first heard some of the swear words in both of my two languages, plus German, that in through my childhood had never been used in the presence of women and children.

At that time, it suddenly became the fashion to use the crudest possible terms for all physical functions and parts of the body and to use sexually influenced language rather than blasphemies as swear-words.

Words that had literally been unprintable in newspapers and books suddenly were accepted by editors and were even used on stage and TV.

Language of this sort has been pretty usual ever since, so I am at a loss to understand why you are all shocked now.

I try not to swear myself, and when I do, I tend to stick to the kind of swear-words that I as a child occasionaly heard . the ones I learned in my twenties don't really shock me, perhaps because the first time I heard them, I literally had no idea what they meant.

LOUISA1523

Times change 🤷‍♀️.... and not just swearing.....I mean we don't slap our kids any more hopefully ( I never slapped mine and my GDs are never slapped) .....I would finding that far more offensive than someone say fuck in my presence

Totally agree LOUISA1523

I heard the C word used for the first time just a few years ago, directed at me by a scammer on the phone. I was shocked. I can use the F word in private in extreme situations but the C word is just appalling.

Yet another example of the general decline in standards.

In one occasion as I skipped and fell into a muddy pond I swore, the children were horrified and shocked, mummy said @#@#! (Not the f word )
I have to say though listening to the radio in the car just now I heard about how a children's hospital.im Ukraine has been bombed, and I did swear then

I'm not shocked. I just find the use of words for female anatomy used as insults unpleasant. It seems misogynistic to have the very 'worst' word reserved for that.

I've never really felt comfortable with the 'reclaiming' thing, which is maybe me being out of step, but I've always found it a bit awkward and rather performative.

Actually, Bluesmum, I think that’s really lovely.

Question for those who swear... do you swear all the time in front of anyone and everyone? Or just in certain company?

I ask because I have a number of friends that I would feel most uncomfortable swearing in their company... simply because, they don't. (swear, that is).

Here's some food for thought for you all. Being offended by swearing is a choice. The Working Classes swear with impunity. The next most prolific swearers are the Upper Classes. The only people who are genuinely offended are the Middle Classes, more specifically the C2s as opposed to those in the C1 socio-economic group. The reason for this is that certain C2s are aspirational and wish to be or consider themselves to be nearer the C1s whilst simultaneously trying to distance themselves from the Working Classes. So, ironically, anyone who claims to be offended by bad language (especially given its prevalence in the 21st Century) or feels the need to correct other people's language gives themself away as being nearer to the Working Classes than the Upper Classes that they aspire to.....

Retread
I have two very close friends who don’t swear. I wouldn’t dream of swearing in front of them.

I rarely swear and find that that way it has a much greater impact when I do!

True, neither the upper class or the working class give a flying f**k what anyone thinks.😁

It’s a generational thing really.🤷🏼‍♀️