Decline of the swear word

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

It used to be that if someone uttered the F word, or the B word in good company, people would gasp and be shocked. If someone had said "You're a f***ing idiot" to someone in NZ 25 years ago, they could expect to be either punched in the face or receive a heavy back-hand slap. Now they're more likely to have that person ignore it or simply repeat the insult, or return with some other foul-mouthed reply.

If one had uttered the S word or the B word at school, they could probably expect a caning from the teacher. Now they'd likely receive a "watch your mouth!" or simply be ignored by the teacher.

If you did something to really annoy someone, or offend them deeply, they could let you know very easily. A simple "fu** off" would get the message across that whatever you had done or said was simply not to be done or said ever again. Now you could expect to receive a "fu** off" in good cheer, for instance if you bought something especially cheap:
"Man! I got this Louis Vuitton bag for $5!!!"
"Fuck off!"
"Naa! Honest!"

This same conversation 25 years ago (in general middle class society, I think in lower classes, swearing has had a pretty mundane effect for quite a while:
"Man! I got this Louis Vuitton bag for $5!!!"
"Fuck off!"
*WHAM* (replier gets whacked in the face)

We simply have to face the facts. The overuse of swearing has lead to a great fall in the effectiveness of swearing. A simple F word no longer carries the hate and anger that it once did. It is no longer possible to offend a large number of people simply by uttering a few common phrases. Now swear words exist in the every day speech of many societies, it is simply not shocking anymore. Most people no longer get offended, unless you let of a whole stream of them, and even then, many people would simply think one a little unintelligent, rather than getting angry or upset.

Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up to you to decide. But in my personal opinion it is a bad thing, because swearing used to play a very effective role, and now most swearwords have simply become common adjectives/adverbs in the common lexicon.