Hello Everyone,
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a friend and fellow English instructor about "bad words," specifically about the old adage that insists people only use so-called curse words because they are uneducated and lack a decent vocabulary. While the premise itself is obviously ridiculous (for example, many of my most educated and intelligent friends could make the Devil blush with the language they use), it does raise an interesting question: in our modern society, what's so bad about bad words?
I'll admit that I don't have a clear response to this question. On the one hand, I appreciate power and passion that these "dirty" words can project. Like many other professional writers, I use them all the time in my fiction, as sentences like "The whole place spelled like poop" just doesn't have the impact of a more honest version. This of course doesn't take my disdain for censorship into account, or my distaste for the prudishness that has been a part of my field for so long.
Having said that, I must also admit that I'd be rather horrified if my two-year-old son suddenly began "swearing like a sailor." In fact, I'd react pretty negatively if I heard someone else's toddler doing the same, questioning both parenting skills and overall intelligence. And why? Why is it appropriate for me to use such language and not my little boy? Or is it appropriate at all?
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