(originally posted on my other blog, hybrid tumbleweed, 03-19-2006)
Oh the power of words... asshole, bitch, cunt, damn, faggot, fuck, hell, pussy, piss, shit, up yours, plus variations, combinations, and elaborations thereof... do I need to go on? We have devised many words to express frustration and anger, and to express power relationships.
We sometimes use expletives (swearwords, obscenities, curses, profanity, etc.) simply to blow off some steam, directing them not against anyone but merely into the air. We use them at other times to let someone else know how we feel about a situation or indeed about them. We also pepper our language with these colourful words to enhance and embellish, to add a certain umph to what we are saying.
What has really struck me about these words is what the vast majority of them seem to have in common. At the most basic level, all swearwords are meant to inflict anything from discomfort to shame, indignation, and pain. Many are uncomfortable because they break certain taboos, or because they blaspheme, or else because they refer to dirty or denigrating things. Many refer to bodily funtions and excretions, or to sexual functions or objectifications, while others reference religion.
A great number of swearwords specifically refer to the infliction of pain, discomfort or humiliation through sexual acts. The word 'fuck' is frequently used simply to add force or emphasis, or to release frustration, but, because of its sexual reference, when used against another person it refers to the use of sex to humiliate and harm. After all, when we say 'fuck you' to someone, we don't mean that we would like to have sex with or make love to them. There is no tenderness or mutual consent implied here. I think it really refers to sexual violence, to rape. The same goes for the phrase 'up yours' and the gesture that usually accompanies it. It signifies the infliction of anal pain via sexual or other insertion.
To those who may feel that I am pulling things out of thin air to argue against the use of expletives, let me say that I actually feel very conflicted about their use. I do use them from time to time, but tend to use them simply to vent, or sometimes to add force to a statement, rather than directing them against people.
I am not a religious person and therefore have no 'moral objection' to swearing. But I am an ethical person, a thinking person, and I know that humanity has often used sexuality to hurt people. Indeed, rape has often been a calculated part of war. The Inquisition and the Crusades were full of tales of calculated, institutionalised sexual brutality. And the reports of sexual violence and humiliation inflicted by American forces on prisoners at the Abu Ghraib facility (caution: very graphic and disturbing images) demonstrate that the practice has not been relegated to our history books, but is very much alive in so-called civilised societies.
Expletives may be harmless, may help release tension, and can be quite fun. However, they do reference a very dark aspect of humanity, or should I say inhumanity. I really feel that if we use expletives, especially ones with sexual references, we should use them with a full awareness of the darker references inherent in them.
