Ranting About Swearing

It's been said that swearing is the language of the ignorant. So with that in mind, let's get on with this fucking post.

I ran across a blog post the other day. In the title of the blog was fuck*d. Haha, funny, hardeeharhar. Now at first glance, I read f*cked, and it wasn't until I looked again, I noticed the asterisk blocking out a different letter. I can easily see why someone would do this. Well, no I can't. Maybe it was a mistake? Why would anyone asterisk out the e instead of the u? Furthermore, why replace any of the letters with symbols? Ask yourself: are you going to read the word in any other way than how it normally looks? Are you going to say fuck-asterisk-d? Or sh-asterisk-t? No, I don't think you are, and neither do you.

As I saw the word, I started reminiscing to my childhood. Now, when I was fairly young church was a normal part of Sundays in an on and off way. My parents, or maybe mostly my mom, was constantly in search of a church that provided quality instruction, a dynamic pastor, and a climate she believed was beneficial to everyone in the family. One thing she didn't like was the fire and brimstone preachers who casted a lot of stones without tossing any his way first. Needless to say, the search was long and hard, and I believe she's still on the quest. Politics, too strong or overbearing preaching, or whatever, has kept the Church at bay, somewhat. There was one thing that ran around the neighborhood, and I can't be sure if it was from the other kids or their parents or my parents, but it was well-known that swearing wasn't to be tolerated. Not in the full verbal sense. As much as it wasn't okay to curse, it was perfectly acceptable to spell the word out. I have faint memories of all the friends, we were in the second or third grade at the time, running about, "Oh S. H. I. T." For the most part I was too active to get drawn into these kind of conversations where the boys would out-cuss each other with spelling tests, but I wasn't deaf.

Fast-forwarding way too many years later and I'm having a conversation with my boss. The where, when, and who I will leave out because it doesn't matter. Anyway, my boss was a prude, or presents as one at least. During this conversation a curse word is spelled out, and another one is replaced: goddangit. Okay. Good job at preventing anything harsh from spilling out. So, I decided to let my internal thoughts slip out in a verbal format and said, "Why did you replace one word for another, and spell out yet another." Understand that my next comment is being made to a hard-core religious person who believes all the English curse words can be found in the Bible somewhere all you have to do is look. What I said was, "You do realize that just because you spelled the words and replaced one with the other, you're still sinning. Because if you've already thought up the word and felt it prudent to replace it with something less graphic, it's too late. God knows what you were going to say anyway. So you might as well say it." The boss just shot me a look and wandered off. No doubt cursing under the breath. Whether my boss was trying to prove something to me by being "polite" but it came off as a ruse. And so do the blocked out letters when someone cleans up the word. Why bother?

I find it more irritating for someone to edit the words than just say what they mean to say. Are you trying to be the example by not spelling it out how it's supposed to be? Maybe it's to be above all us knuckle-dragging ignorants? Stop wasting time trying to be prudish. If you mean shit, well spell shit and not sh*t. This is especially important to writers. Write the word you mean and not the word you think the censors will like.