obscenities
It's all right for Billy Connolly to say 'fuck' but it's not all right for me too. The reason for this is quite simple; I'm a woman and Billy Connolly, isn't. Billy's funny; I'm obscene. OK some people would probably reckon he was obscene too, but I don't. Why would I be offended by anyone with such a skilled use of the vernacular? Appropriately inserted expletives can flavour a conversation in much the same way the addition of spices flavour a curry. Some folks find a hot curry intolerable and others find a mild curry bland. But curries aren't gendered, and herein lies a major difference between infusing a conversation with curses and a curry with spices.
Growing up, I heard my father swear regularly, but he never said 'fuck' or 'cunt' in the presence of women and girls. I was subsequently shocked when I learned from the son of my father's friend, that his language was peppered with these words. But he never spoke them in the house. I learned that they were 'Shearing Shed Words'; and when I was a kid, shearing sheds were men's places, except at smoko, when the women brought over the tea and biscuits. Needless to say that then, the men were too busy eating, drinking and smoking to say much at all.
By not using four letter words in the presence of women, men were showing 'respect' for them. Remnants of chivalry? Pity many of these same men didn't consider violence against women disrespectful, and even if they didn't batter their own wives, stand up to the men who did.
One of the reasons that men in Australia considered the 'public bar' in hotels sacred, was because they could swear to their heart's content, with the only women present being the barmaids, who often put up with more than the men swearing in their workplace. The move to allow the 'public bar' to be truly public, that is by allowing women to drink there, was met with a great deal of opposition from male drinkers. Australian pubs have had a history segregation, both of race and sex. Although discrimination is now illegal, offending patrons by posting racist and sexist images, airing pornographic videos and generally making it an uncomfortable place for women, is not illegal. An attitude of 'if you don't like it you can leave' is still pervasive in some establishments.
But is swearing, in and of itself offensive? I think this depends on the context and content. Any targeted verbal abuse can be offensive. I find the use of racist and sexist epithets offensive. I don't like seeing children subjected to an atmosphere of hatred, bigotry and violence, expressed either verbally or physically, whether or not swearing is used. Calling a child 'stupid,' or 'fucking stupid' has the same effect on the child; denigration. Saying you had a 'great' time or a 'fucking great' time, expresses the same sentiment, although I would add that sometimes people who swear repeatedly and unthinkingly, could do with some vocabulary expansion. But war, hunger and exploitation, often take place in this world with nary a profanity spoken; and that is a fucking obscenity!
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