{"id":6651,"date":"2017-06-19T07:21:41","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T13:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=6651"},"modified":"2017-06-17T19:03:04","modified_gmt":"2017-06-18T01:03:04","slug":"swears-social-compact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/swears-social-compact.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Swears&#8221; and the social compact"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6720\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2017\/06\/swear-jar.jpg\" alt=\"from wikipedia:  https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ASwear_jar_2.jpg; By Anna Frodesiak (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons\" width=\"386\" height=\"352\"><\/p>\n<p>We were at Laserquest the other day, celebrating a birthday. \u00a0Before you enter the \u201carena,\u201d you are required to pledge not to misbehave, and this includes not running, not pushing anyone, and not using \u201coffensive language.\u201d \u00a0But, as a mom with a group of 6 10-year-olds, who formed the majority of the players, but with a group of 5 teenagers also there, I wondered, \u201cdo teenagers (in particular, when raised in \u201cnone-ish households) still understand the concept of \u2018offensive language\u2019?\u201d, that is, what my kids call \u201cswears.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After all, it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/06\/09\/politics\/kirsten-gillibrand-fbomb\/index.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">was reported that<\/a> Democratic Senator Kristin Gillibrand dropped the f-bomb in a recent speech, and other Democrats have been doing so lately as well, or using other such language, seemingly as a means of proclaiming their dedication to The Cause. \u00a0My oldest son also pointed out some of the readings they were doing in his 11th grade English class, which also used the f-bomb and other swears liberally.<\/p>\n<p>I remember in college, when a group of friends I had made early on pushed me to swear regularly as proof that I was an adult, not a high-schooler, and that I wasn\u2019t some prissy or clueless child. \u00a0Now it seems that countless writers have decided that, not only is it perfectly appropriate to sprinkle swears throughout their writing (and presumably their everyday speech) but that to not to so would be inauthentic and inappropriate or simply childish.<\/p>\n<p>But why should that be? \u00a0Why do we need to swear to prove that we\u2019re adults?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, we seem to need some class of words to show strong feelings. \u00a0But there\u2019s no reason why that set of words can\u2019t be \u201cfrickin'\u201d or \u201cdangnabit\u201d or even \u201cwhat the covfefe\u201d (which I\u2019m inclined towards using in an all-purpose manner these days) rather than f*** or the like. \u00a0Or, rather, why f*** can\u2019t be reserved for truly extreme situations, like, say, a car accident. \u00a0But, then, I suppose, it fits with the fact that we seem to have lost all sense of proportion, and treat every undesirable event as if it were as horrific as, well, whatever horrific thing you can imagine.<\/p>\n<p>Or is it the other way around? \u00a0Does the use, among a segment of the population, of f*** as a normal part of everyday speech, contribute to that loss of proportion? \u00a0Does reserving \u201cswears\u201d for serious things help us keep a sense of balance?<\/p>\n<p>Just a thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Image: \u00a0from wikipedia: https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ASwear_jar_2.jpg; By Anna Frodesiak (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We were at Laserquest the other day, celebrating a birthday. \u00a0Before you enter the \u201carena,\u201d you are required to pledge not to misbehave, and this includes not running, not pushing anyone, and not using \u201coffensive language.\u201d \u00a0But, as a mom with a group of 6 10-year-olds, who formed the majority of the players, but with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[651,652],"class_list":["post-6651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-swearing","tag-the-f-word"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Swears&quot; 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