When facing confrontations about doing something wrong, our initial reactions usually include finding an excuse or justification. Typically, I don’t like to turn simple situations into ‘right-or-wrong’ scenarios, but I believe there should be a limit to the amount of effort one puts into finding and presenting these excuses.
Jordan Culver, a staff editor for The Famuan, wrote an article defending the use of curse words in public in which he states,”… if a word has no historical meaning, no great pain associated with it, then it’s just a word.”
He continues to state that only words that cause “great pain” should be shunned from society. The “N” word, for example was “specifically designed to hurt…” while there are “certain four-letter words” that “… have no historical painful roots.”
The ‘F’ word comes from the ancient Swedish word “focken” literally meaning sex. Since this is nothing but simple taboo, words like the “F” word should not have to suffer the “cringe” from a teacher or the “look of shock on a 40-year-old’s face”.
For too many reasons I can’t agree with any of his reasoning behind why it should be okay to use profanity in a public setting. There is an established common sense of courtesy when it comes to just about everything we do around others.
Ever since any of us could remember, we were being schooled on how to act appropriately when we step out in public. We’re trained to be sure to say please and thank you, be discrete about picking anything from our nose, cover our mouths when we yawn, cough or sneeze, and never say bad words. I don’t think these need to be made into law to be considered imperative.
Following these rules only makes you more presentable and sociable to people who aren’t in your social circle. I wish I could honestly say that I don’t curse at all, but what’s more important is that I see the wrong in it. “A few old guys in suits” saying that your mouth is dirty is more than enough of a real reason to adjust the way you talk.
The use of curse words only encourages unnecessary confrontations and helps to portray you in a negative light. I’m sure you know much better than to walk into a job interview ranting with no consideration to the words used in your dialogue. I’m more certain that you’d put a bit more thought into how you speak to your mother.
People are going to have a problem with having to hear that kind of language. If you are that bold to be able to comfortably say “(Expletive deleted) that” in response to confrontations about your language, you should be just as bold with taking the criticism.