Swearing is so unattractive. There are more than two or three words in the English language – in ANY language. I can’t fathom why a person would deliberately choose to use the same word as an adjective, verb, noun, and exclamation, when clearly, they have an education that would allow them to select from thousands of words at their disposal that more accurately describe anything, anyone, or any situation.
Sure, we all get angry or upset. Sometimes everyone lets an expletive slip through their lips. However, when someone chooses to narrow their scope of words to one in particular beginning with an “F”, it not only shows lack of creativity, it shows a lack of class, manners, thought, and education.
Maybe people do it out of habit? Laziness? Maybe they are trying to “fit in” and “be cool”. Well, there’s nothing cool about showing lack of restraint and tainting everything you do, say, or see with an unfiltered “f*ck”.
Some may deem swearing as a part of their culture – the way that people in their neighborhood, town, or area of the country speak. Yes, what you hear is what you tend to repeat, I’ll give you that. However, there is a lot of daily exposure to those outside of a regional area which can also influence anyone to express themselves with a cleaner, less R-Rated vocabulary, like some music, movies, YouTube videos, internet articles and videos, TV, as well as the impact of teachers, and colleagues at work, who do not make it a mission in life to use as few words as possible which fall into the category of cursing.
Perhaps some people swear for effect? Attention? Is it the cultural norm? Personally, I find it very unattractive and a complete turn-off if a man expresses himself consistently with a few choice words. It’s barbaric and shows no respect. Even worse, is a woman who lets f*ck fly out of her mouth every time she runs out of coffee, hits a traffic jam, breaks a nail, or has a comment to make about someone else. You can make a powerful statement without overusing swear words.
It doesn’t matter if it’s meant in a hurtful manner or not. This is not something we should encourage children to imitate; and they learn by example. Cursing isn’t something that some of the greatest minds and writers have used to express emotion and thought. Instead, they reach for the depths of more colorful language which is less offensive and substantially more descriptive.
One of my followers commented on this topic via Twitter, “Swearing shows that the individual has a very poor vocabulary and/or are [sic] very lazy! Most swearing is habitual and unnecessary!”
I do think it’s habitual! In college, I found myself picking up this bad habit of swearing. The people I surrounded myself with at the time found it very par for the course to let countless amounts of “sh*t”, “f*ck”, and other choice four-letter words launch from their lips in every conversation. What you hear is what you tend to repeat. Then I stopped and listened to them. I didn’t like what I heard. Then I stopped and listened to myself. I felt like I was low class. I felt like I was better than this. I was educated. I was capable of expressing myself more intelligently. I didn’t want people looking at me in restaurants unacceptably, or glaring at me for my words in the presence of their children. I wanted to be looked up to, not down upon.
And with these thoughts, I made a conscious effort to clean up my language and think before I spoke. I may have thought in my head words like “That f’in f’er” or “F!”, but as I tell my daughter, it’s ok to think those words, but don’t let them out of your mouth! (At least not all of the time!)
As easily as the “habit” of cursing is formed, it can be broken.
I’m not a proponent of censorship. I’m not going to go around calling the “F’n police” on y’all. I think it’s ridiculous that movies have ratings that prevent, or parents prevent, their children from viewing because of crude language, when we all hear much worse in school or on the street. You can’t censor real life.
What I am suggesting is simple. Think, before you speak. Respect is not gained by being the loudest one in the room, or the one who curses the most for attention or effect. If anything, it demonstrates that you have more false bravado than what’s beneath the surface to back up your opinions, thoughts, beliefs, and ideas.
As far as first impressions go, any man that can’t command his own language in front of me, surely can not command my attention beyond that lip service level. And you are a reflection of the company you keep! You won’t find me in a group of gals giving “f-cks”. I may sound elitist, but I believe that as intelligent humans, we have the ability to express ourselves in so many beautiful ways that we have the option to exercise that with every spoken word.
A picture is worth a thousand words, but exactly which words are we talking about?
If you disagree, please, let me state something in a way that you can understand, “I don’t give a f-ck!”