Fatlo.af

In part 2 of my spleen venting extravaganza, I’ll be discussing the topic of swearing, in particular, use of that special taboo word.
In my opinion, and speaking as a hypocrite of the highest order, there is one word that will never and should never enter common usage. The infamous “c” word.
I will grant that there are occasions when certain words are appropriate, and even necessary. Furthermore, certain people can take the sting out of a taboo word with expert delivery (see Lynch, Gavin), but for the majority of us, the word sounds as vulgar as it is.
Putting on my chauvinist hat for a moment, I think this word sounds even more vulgar coming from the mouth of a woman. I cringe whenever I hear a woman, or anyone in what I consider “polite company”, using the “c” word. (I once witnessed a female friend referring to her young child as one when she was behaving badly).

Removing my chauvinist hat and putting my hypocrite hat back on, I’m not actually a big fan of swearing in most forms. Whilst I don’t think swear words are the adjectives of the illiterate, I do believe they can be the punctuation of the unthinking.
It becomes second nature to pause mid-sentence whilst gathering one’s thoughts and, stalling, say “fuckin’”, or something similar.

With this in mind, I’m going to try to wean myself off the more colourful swear words. This is not a Crusade, I’m not going to preach the Way, I just feel I’ve identified something about myself that I’m not happy with and wish to improve. It was rightly pointed out to me by a friend that the “c” word had become far too common in my vocabulary, which is what started this particular post. After all, I can hardly be offended at other people’s usage of a word I use excessively myself.