Swearing

So why is it always the same f word, used as a noun, an adjective, a verb or an adverb? Doesn't sound very intelligent to me! Lack of imagination?

paddyann54

I never swear and everyone who knows me even reasonably well knows not to swear in my home.I find it offensive ,my parents never swore and my lovely dad used to blush if he heard women swear ,usually in his workplace.If people want their kids to have potty mouths that’s up to them ,but certainly nothing to be pleased or proud of .In my opinion

Brilliant post

Has anyone seen the film 'Wicked Little Letters'?

Petra thanks, and true.

Cambsnan me too!

I never swear and everyone who knows me even reasonably well knows not to swear in my home.I find it offensive ,my parents never swore and my lovely dad used to blush if he heard women swear ,usually in his workplace.If people want their kids to have potty mouths that’s up to them ,but certainly nothing to be pleased or proud of .In my opinion

Most swearing is for emphasis. It would only bother me if I were being sworn at. But you can be despicably rude without swearing at all.

It’s a generational thing really.🤷🏼‍♀️

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

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

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

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.....

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).

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

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.

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

Yet another example of the general decline in standards.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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