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What’s the big deal with swear words?

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Every now and then, somewhere among the horror expressed about my feminism, my daring to talk about racism and my blue hair, there’s always someone expressing horror at my language, which has been described as "filthy".

I recognise the prejudice against swear words. My parents both despise swearing as one of the worst things ever to exist.

"Bloody" is considered too ripe for their tastes. My mother has once described a woman swearing by saying she said "ess eich one tee".

My dad is forever annoyed that DVDs don’t have the option to blank out swear words.

They just don’t like it, and they’re my parents, so I try not to swear in front of them.

To them, and to many, swear words really seem to carry a special kind of power. You can see a visible flinch when I use one.

There’s a genuine horror when someone is tweeting about how awful my language is. The horror! She swore!

But it’s just words. There’s nothing magical or special about them.

When I was a child, I said a word that I thought I had made up but I must have heard somewhere. I couldn’t believe the reaction.

All my older siblings were horrified. My mother was shocked. It was made clear that I had said something really terrible. I remember being in floods of tears because I didn’t know it was a swear word.

A child has to be taught a swear word is bad. (And from that day to this they just don’t affect me the way they seem to affect other people.)

Swear words are just… words. We’re the ones who give them power, and we should stop doing that.

The only argument against swear words that I’ve heard that I can agree with is they can make you lazy. The 'f' word is one of the most versatile words in the English language.

When you have a word that can be used in almost every situation, why bother to improve your vocabulary? This is why I like Tim Minchin’s rule.

In a speech to Christ Church Grammar School, Tim said, "For every swear word I use, there’s a word which is equally uncommon at the other end of the language scale." This seems like a good way to balance that out.

It’s amazing how many people I’ve met who have no trouble with saying sexist, racist, homophobic, or even just nasty and hurtful things, but who thinks swearing is "bad".

The fact that they don’t swear doesn’t stop them, in any way, from using language to harm.

And that’s the problem with swear words – refusing to use them gives you a false sense of moral superiority.

It reminds me of the way some people use religion. Follow these token rules and then you can be ‘moral’ and everything you do is 'right'.

Even if you say something awful, you can feel smugly superior. "Well, at least I didn’t swear. I’m not as bad as people who swear."

I’m not buying it, personally. If your sense of moral superiority relies on token gestures that don’t really mean anything, there’s a big chance that you’re not all that moral after all.

Follow Laura on Twitter or visit her blog.

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