Who the fuck cares?

The idea of writing an essay on swearing has been sitting in the back of my mind for over a year now and this will probably turn out to be less sensational and spectacular than I had envisioned. Such is life.

I was a good kid growing up. And by good I mean really well behaved. You could even say I was a "goody two shoes". That's changed quite a bit now (This was mostly my idea). Anyways, the thought of getting in trouble was always terrifying for me and I knew that swearing was a big no no. I can still remember the first time I dropped a proverbial "f bomb". I had to play goalie for soccer at recess, which was something that I never did, and I let in a goal. I was heartbroken (I don't know what I was expecting, I wasn't very good) and my friend Joel was laughing at me. He was trying to cheer me up but it wasn't working, so I told him, "I don't play fucking goalie". And that was it. My pure little mouth was tarnished forever.

Fast forward to now and it's quite a different story. I mean, I watch my language pretty well, but sometimes "gosh darn-it" just doesn't cut it. But the number one factor in my word choice is the people that I'm with. Some might call this dishonest and tell me that I'm somehow "lying" if I'm intentionally being a different person, but I don't think so. I'm just being courteous. I would hardly say that swearing is a vital part of who I am, so to put that aside is not really a big deal.

What's wrong with swearing? I don't know and it's something that I've been wondering about for awhile. Obviously certain words have vulgar meanings, but that holds true of many words that people use on a day to day basis. Shit means the same thing as poop or feces, so why is it that I'll never hear that word coming from certain mouths? One topic that has captured my attention in school in the last year or so is language theory. Basically, how words develop their meanings, etc. It's pretty lofty, abstract stuff, but I enjoy it. Essentially, in my opinion, word meaning are totally subjective. From the moment you are born, you start associating the sounds that you hear with whatever is going on around you at that time. This leads people to have more or less the same understandings of words, but allows for some discrepancy. If my parents told me to go take a shit every time they wanted me to go to the bathroom it's not likely that I would have any negative connotations associated with that word. It's not like swear words are inherently bad.

This leads me to thinking that for some people, swearing actually does feel violent because it just IS. It's the way that they've grown up. For others, it's not a big deal. So I don't scorn people who get all uptight and uncomfortable when choice words are being dropped, just as I don't think people who do swear are children of the devil. Everyone's different and I'm cool with that. Peace out, bitches!

BTW, If you're in the crowd that hasn't ever heard me swear, don't come away from this thinking that I cuss a blue streak anytime you're not around. I don't.