Swearing! How can I ever forget a time when I said a swear word in front of my mom. I was at the grocery store shopping with my mom and cousin. I was already upset because I got in trouble at home already. My cousin just kept messing with me and making fun of me and I just told her to “shut the fuck up.” Don’t you just hate those nagging little cousins that laugh at everything? I tried to say it as low as possible but my mom has ears like a hawk. Man I swear I never got slapped so hard a day in my life. From that day forward I swore that I wouldn’t say any swear words ever. Do you ever wonder where swearing words originated from? Or even people views on how they feel about them? Barbara Lawrence has an issue with swearing words because people use different terminology such as: “Broad”, “chick”, “piece of tail” and other sorts of harmful words to downgrade women. Bill Bryson on the other hand says that swear words are merely considered bad because they are considered bad. A similarity that both Lawrence and Bryson have is when they mentioned the word “ficken”, which is a German or Latin word meaning f***. The difference between the two are that Bryson explains the different words the Romans created and used over 1,500 years ago and Lawrence explains that some …show more content…
words are obscene to women. In Lawrence article, the word “f***” is an obscene word to downgrade women.
There are different origins of the word. In German terms the word “ficken” means “to strike”. In Latin the word “future or fustis” means a “staff or cudgel”. The Irish word “bot” means “the male member”. Another Latin word “battuere” means “to beat”. All of these words are correspondence sexually to downgrade women. “No one that I know, least of all my students, would fail to question the values of a society whose literature and entertainment rested heavily on racial or ethnic pejoratives. Are the values of a society whose literature and entertainment rest as heavily as ours on sexual pejoratives any less questionable?” (para.
10). In Bryson article, the word “f***” is also being used. Although the word may have originated from Latin futuo, the French and German term “ficken” still have the same meaning. Before the Latin words, the vulgar word for sex was “to strive”. You can use the word for different meanings but in this situation it means to have sex or “copulate,” as the middle class would say. In comparison, both Lawrence and Bryson informs the reader where the word “f***” comes from and the meaning which is vulgar. The difference between the two authors is that Bryson states the different meanings the word “fuck” can be used as instead of being all about sex. An example would be a bad relationship between you and your spouse. Sometimes you just get fed up and the only thing you can just say is “fuck it.” Some of the swear words Bryson stated were all created before we were even thought of. The word “fuck” first appeared in a poem in 1503. The word “shit” has been used ever since the 1500’s. “P***y” goes back to at least the 1600’s. The word piss goes back to the early 1300’s and has been documented since the 1970’s. Both authors use the same “But then of course the gravity of swear words in any language has little to do with the words themselves and much more to do with the fact that they are forbidden” (para. 17). Lawrence view was more on how swear words were used to downgrade women. The problem was the people who would most likely get listened to like teachers, critics, and writers. They were probably uninterested but not angry. She also stated that if the issue was more racial that they would probably become upset and have everything to say. She wondered why the value of women rights weren’t important as any other issue like race or violence. The difference between the two is that Bryson gives a time frame on when the words were used in early ages and Lawrence tells how she feel about swearing words and how important the issue is to her. In conclusion, I think that these two articles may impact our view on swearing words or it may not. I say this because swearing words have been around for a long period of time and some people are so accustomed to using these words that it’s not an issue to them. When people use swearing words it could be to get a point across or to hurt someone’s feeling. It’s really not the word itself that’s the big deal it’s the meaning behind it. In Lawrence article, the way words were used to downgrade women was a problem to her. That can be a problem for other women who doesn’t like the words used toward her. So if that is a problem with any women I’m pretty sure they can start a petition to gain the respect they deserve.
The novel has foul language. There are many swears words in the book. In the very first chapter the character V uses very offensive language. She is in the car on the way home from the airport and the narrator, Mara notices her hand. “I stole a peek at her hand. Down each finger, from her pinkie to her pointer, she'd scrawled f***, f***, f***, f***. On her thumb it said everyone. Yikes” (Mackler 9). Seeing this in the ...
Twain’s use of profane language, namely the inclusion of the word “nigger” over 200 times, is condoned by the exceptionally realistic setting it creates. For proponents of banning the book, the use of obscenities are seen as justification enough to ban, but according to United States federal judge John Woolsey, the obscenities are not in fact obscenities at all. Determined by the Courts, a book can only be found obscene if it stirs sexual impulses or is “dirt for dirt’s sake” (Woolsey). Neither part of this definition fits Twain’s writing. Twain uses vulgar language to realistically depict the Southern antebellum society in which the story takes place.
In the modern society, millions of people realize that several offensive words with insulting taboo meanings heavily disturb their daily lives and break some special groups of people’s respect to push them to feel like outsiders of the whole society. As a result, more and more people join some underway movements to eliminate the use of these offensive words in people’s everyday speech and writing. However, these offensive words themselves are not the culprit, the bad meanings people attach are the problems and some other functions of the words are useful in the society. Christopher M. Fairman the author of “ Saying It Is Hurtful, Banning It Is Worse” also argues that although
Firoozeh Dumas’s essay “The "F” Word” is not what people think it would be about. When people hear the someone mention the “F” word all sorts of things pop into their head. Yet, Firoozeh Dumas twist the meaning of her title to something people wouldn't think when they heard the title. Dumas takes a stereotype in the title to grab our attention. People in the American Society judge people by more than just the color of their skin, for instance in Firoozeh’s case it was her name. Society has an image of what everyone should be like from their looks the the name they go by. In the article Firoozeh Dumas tries to explain her experience as an immigrant from Iran to the US. Dumas tries to show how hard it was for her to come to America and live
The words Negro, nigger, and nigga have always been a sensitive topic, yet it is a topic that needs to be addressed in light of the more common use of its vernacular. One word is used to describe a color, while the others are used to define a people. It’s very clear to many the negative connotation these words carry, but where did these words come from? Furthermore, is there a difference between the word nigger and nigga; and why is it that African-Americans now use the word nigga to degrade each other in today’s society? These words, in spite of their spelling, still holds the same degrading power as it did during the time of slavery, and they are still spoken out of cruelty and ignorance, but who is to blame? Can one still blame the Spaniards for considering people of a darker skin tone –Black? Can we blame the Europeans for perpetuating their hatred and ignorance of superiority over a race of people to the point they felt it lawful to define and dehumanize them? Or does the blame lie with the African-American race as we use this degrading labeling on our own kind, thus becoming the victimizer. Either way nigger or nigga are words that should be eliminated from the vocabulary of every human being.
The language has been used in writing before and many books use this type of language so they can build a connection to the real world. It is vital for teens especially in 8th grade and above to learn how important it is to stray away from these potentially hurtful words and how this type of language can set a certain tone to a
and it came down to seven but the list is open to amendment, and in fact, has been changed, uh, by now. The original seven words were sh*t, p*ss, f*ck, c*nt, c*cks*cker, m*therf*cker, and t*ts.
Banning a book on the basis of profanity is merely a superficial reason of those who wish to limit beliefs that do not coincide with their own. By excluding a novel from a high school curriculum in order to shelter students from profanity, is an attempt to do the impossible. Profanity is found everywhere. According to TV Guide, "Profanity is uttered once every six minutes on American primetime television...
Though it may seem like military talk, the profanity is really used to cover up how they are feeling. The use of the profane words helps solidify how difficult the times were during one. During a tunnel check Lee Strunk crawled out meeting his comrade’s words, “Right out of the grave. Fuckin’ zombie.” (274) While it seems they are joking around with death, shortly after Ted Lavender is shot and killed by a sniper while using the bathroom. Again described by “Oh shit, the guy’s dead” (275) Profanity is used today as an emphasis on description. In both the war and on paper it is easy to feel the tension of the men and the situation that they are in.
According to the New York Times, The use of the word, “bitch,” tripled in the last decade alone, growing to 1,277 uses on 685 shows in 2007 from 431 uses on 103 prime-time episodes in 1998 (Wyatt, 2009). Several years later, the use of the term has increased tremendously since 2007. Today the term has been found not only in television, but in popular music, literary works, online media, and daily conversations. What will be studied and analyzed in order to find a better understanding of the complexities provided by the term will include every day conversations, especially between women; as well as some popular culture texts that include misogynistic lyrics, specifically in the hip hop and rap genres.
The evolution of written profanity began roughly in the sixteenth century, and continues to change with each generation that it sees. Profanity is recognized in many Shakespearean works, and has continually evolved into the profane language used today. Some cuss words have somehow maintained their original meanings throughout hundreds of years, while many others have completely changed meaning or simply fallen out of use.
“Go on, dive in. You’ll have to do some digging... she’s big heifer”. Such was one of my earliest forays into surgical medicine. As a student new to the clinical environment, I was somewhat surprised by the pervasiveness of derogatory slang used to describe patients, and I questioned how I wanted to interact with those around me - be they doctors, patients or students. Reading around this topic led to an excerpt by Komesaroff (2008) in which he presents his theory of micro ethics. Addressing the disparity between traditional bioethical teachings and the realities of clinical practice, he ultimately emphasises the importance of the smallest of ethical decisions in patient care - be it facial expression, tone of questioning or the often inconspicuous acts of trust.
William Shakespeare, though it is not widely taught, used a rather vulgar and dirty vocabulary in his writings. His works included subjects that some people wish they had not. "That includes a fair helping of sex, violence, crime, horror, politics, religion, anti-authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, sexism, jealousy, profanity, satire, and controversy of all kinds" (Macrone 6). In Shakespeare’s time, religious and moral curses were more offensive than biological curses.
After reading the story 'The Power of Profanity' by Scott Weaver my view on profanity and its use of vulgarity has changed dramatically. It wasn't till I was about 18 years of age that I started speaking with profanity. And even after using cuss words such as the B word I would constantly regret my use of language always thought that these words should be absent in my use of language. It was ingrained in me by my mother just like Scott Weaver what's top by her grandmother that "Only stupid people cuss. It's because they can't think of any way else to say what they want to say."
In the article, "You Can't Say That," the author Diane Ravitch talks about how certain words are deleted from books or not shown in films because they could offend certain groups. In the article, Ravitch argues that although it may seem like we live in a world where anything goes, the truth is, that's not true. Diane does research and gathers a list of more than five hundred words that regularly get deleted from textbooks and tests. Some of the words include cowboy, brotherhood, yacht, and primitive. Personally I believe that the censoring of words these days is somewhat extreme. I understand that certain groups could be offended by such words but why should everyone else not get the original words the author is trying to write because of that.