MrPopo wrote:Compare the impact of these two sentances:
I made love to your dog and defecated in your purse.
I fucked your dad and shit in your purse.
The second sentance has more impact because of the taboo nature of the words used.
Surely changing "dog" to "dad" has something to do with that as well, in a way that has nothing to do with word choice.
Anyway, everybody's pretty much already nailed it. Whether you're screaming "Aw fuck, the eggs!" or flashing your testicles at a dinner party, these are things that aren't inherently bad, just determined bad by greater society. A cave man might accidentally say "shit" one day, not knowing what it meant, and surely his cave-mother wouldn't even bat an eyelash. Meanwhile, they're both naked!
I have no problem cursing (I haven't heard the word cussing since I lived in South Jersey) and I curse all the time. My wife curses even more than me. My sister, WHOAH! She made a sailor cry once. I agree with most of what everyone is saying here along the lines of it just being socially taboo. I notice it is lessening and lessing though. I remember they used to bleep out damn on TV. Then it was just god damn. Now it's just the god in god damn. I hear almost all but the worst words on regular TV now.
Just to add something, I think using any word over and over again gets super annoying after a while. I remember I had a friend who called everything and everyone gay when I was in highschool. You couldn't get two words out of your mouth without him saying that's gay or you're gay. It got so freaking annoying after a while because it eventually just ruined every conversation because you knew anything you said would ultimately be insulted. This is just an example, but I have heard conversations with fuck used before everything. Just as annoying, in my opinion, as those people who say "like" before everything. In other words, that's the only time when I get annoyed at curse words, because they are overused sometimes, but it goes for any word.
pepharytheworm wrote:Your question is an unanswerable question. Its like asking why is being nude seen as bad, why is public defecation seen as wrong
Not that I'm trying to play Devil's Advocate here, but cursing is nothing like public defecation. I could make a stretch for nudity (which is largely a taboo in religious circles, though hygiene also plays a role as with many religious taboos), but public defecation is unsanitary and leads to diseases. Just thought I'd clear that up.
A human can aways pick up after themselfs just like they do when walking there dog. Sex also leads to diseases and shaking someones hands I might add. Its not illeagal to not wash your hands after using the restroom is it. Not saying I want to do it but still social constraints are what makes it wrong, unless early man had toilets. Your social constraints is probably what makes you see what I said as more wrong then cussing. Only difference I see is my examples are more natural. My whole arguement is that we see things wrong only as society deems at that time. Not all types of murder was always seen as bad or even a crime. A high born person could kill a commoner and see it as nothing so would others. Beards have been acceptable for high society men off and on.
But the funny thing is you can know that society is why you think things are wrong but still not change your views. It seems too far ingrained, it takes generations for views to change.
I remember a friend long time ago told me that saying "Oh My God" is bad. But I have yet known why it is bad. He was Christian by the way. Anyone have any idea?
wakeup wrote:I remember a friend long time ago told me that saying "Oh My God" is bad. But I have yet known why it is bad. He was Christian by the way. Anyone have any idea?
I think cussing *needs* to be "bad" (i.e. socially unacceptable in "normal" situations) to work the way it does. If I'm correct then it is good that cuss words exist (or rather that some words have been "assigned" as cussing).
Obviously words are empty without meaning. But the point IMO is that word X has been assigned a "cuss" meaning, and that is important to its use. I think it should be obvious that it is not the word itself that matters, in fact there are probably loads of examples of words that were normal and are now cuss words, vice-versa, words that are cuss words in certain regions and not in others even though the country is using the same language.
For example, I read some news recently about a study that cussing helped people let some steam out. So when something happens to stress you and you specifically choose to cuss (instead of using other words) I would guess that breaking the social convention is an important part of the mechanism that has the cuss word release some stress.
