PRO (Samantha Stein):
Language is a strange thing. There are rules on what we can and cannot say that dictate our way of thinking and communicating. Without the rules, nothing would make sense. Even with the rules, things don’t make sense all the time. Throughout the years, we have been refraining from using words just because we don’t like them or think they are worse than other words. We have designated these words as swear words or curse words. But why do they exist? Why have we created words we can’t use?
Profanity dates way back before even the 1500s. It has been a taboo since the first circulation of these words. They’ve been marked as words that are not meant to be heard or spoken. A lot of the words we make off limits aren’t really that bad. That’s not to say that some of these words are genuinely awful words with derogatory meanings and shouldn’t be used (the n-word is the most notable example). I’m not saying that we should walk around insulting each other with language. However, I do think we’ve become too sensitive about the swear words that aren’t as negative or demeaning.
One key feature of expletives is their shock value. They are more emotional. This makes them more powerful. A simple “f*ck” can really tell a lot about someone’s mood. It is the most effective way to get a quick understanding of emotions. Psychologist Timothy Jay told Time “It also communicates very effectively, almost immediately, our feelings and other words don’t do that.” When we use swear words, we’re trying to get our point across. We usually succeed.
It is also said that people who swear a lot tend to be less intelligent. There is some evidence that language fluency is potentially correlated to how much we swear. Of course, intelligence is a highly variable and broad thing to study. I think understanding the power and deep meaning of the taboo that circulates swearing is an intelligent thing to understand.
Emotion is power. Perhaps we get offended when we use power against each other. But in order to get past the power and taboo, we need to use the words. The less we use the words, the more power we give them. There is no reason to avoid words we’ve used, except the ones that have harmful consequences (such as racial slurs and demeaning terms). Refraining from using words that express our emotions only make them that much more powerful and potentially offensive.
CON (Jonathan Jaehnig):
F*ck the rules. Most of them are outdated and don’t translate well. There have always been words that we aren’t supposed to say, but the reasons that we aren’t supposed to say them have been very different.
For example, the word “Taboo” has been thrown around a lot. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica it comes from a Polynesian word meaning “Forbidden.” Most of the words that have been forbidden to different groups throughout human history have been forbidden because they are sacred, like the names of deities, or are potentially dangerous. Think when your grandmother scolds you for “Using the Lord’s name in vain,” not when a teacher scolded you in grade school for saying that you stepped in dog sh*t.
We can probably all agree that most of us have become pretty lax when it comes to throwing around words (and the names of deities) that we would never have said around the dinner table, but a new question is whether we are becoming more or less sensitive to those words. In the words of Alex Caton in a recent article for Politico “The profane has become the mundane.”
Knowing that so many of us rely on vulgarity to express ourselves, and bearing in mind that language is always changing, what we really need to watch out for is the potentially increasing vulgarity of our language. If we use profanity to communicate strong feelings and if the profane really is becoming the mundane, and if language develops to compensate, just imagine the unspeakable acts of carnal barbarism that we will need just to communicate our feelings about traffic in a few years.
These days there is a lot of language about whether people our age are becoming too sensitive, and it might be putting us on our guard when it comes to whether we are too sensitive. While being too sensitive is a danger, not being sensitive enough is potentially just as dangerous. Sensitivity isn’t just what makes snowflakes melt, it’s also what makes thermometers accurate. If we lose our sensitivity to language, it will no longer be effective.
No word should be disallowed forever, but if we keep our most dangerous language tucked safely away in our boot for when we really need it, that language will be all the more powerful when we pull it on someone, and we won’t run the risk of hurting someone in carelessness.
