Profanity
It is awesome.
I fucking love profanity.
You heard me.
And that’s the point! You heard me! And you heard me, at least in part, because of the profanity. Your eyes were drawn to it, you heard it in your head. If you’ve hung around with me enough you absolutely heard it in my voice.
Communication is something that fascinates me, in part because communication is difficult. There are a number of reasons for this of course, but two of them are that people don’t pay any fucking attention and words fucking suck.
Let’s talk about that!
First, attention. People suck at paying attention. Guaranteed a bunch of folks have already noped out of what I’m saying. Too long, didn’t read. Right? It’s how we’re wired. So you need attention-getters. Or attention-focusers. Profanity is fantastic for that. As is yelling. If you’ve ever watched really good speeches you’ll see some of that - they vary their cadence, they change their volume, sometimes they even yell. Profanity is just another way of yelling to bring attention back.
Second, words suck. What I mean by this is that complicated topics are incredibly hard to communicate. Nuance is difficult. So one solution for that is to drown the reader in words. But profanity can shortcut that.
Consider:
“This state of affairs makes me angry. It’s filled with lies and I can barely even see straight or even know where to start. I’m going to leave this conversation now because I’m exhausted even thinking about talking this out with you.”
Or:
“I’ve run out of fucks for your bullshit. Bye.”
I mean, could you imagine if I didn’t use profanity?
But, seriously, profanity is a useful shorthand. It contains nuance and communicates intent and emotion in a way that is more difficult with other language. Words are incredibly hard and I see profanity as some of the most useful words in my toolbox.
I submit that being profane makes me a better communicator.
Also, profanity is fun. Because it irks people. And we all need to take ourselves a little less seriously.
Profanity simplifies. It reduces the number of people I need to give a shit about. When I was pierced up all to hell I learned that some number of folks immediately disregarded me. Not because of who I was but simply because of how I looked. Similarly, I’ve learned that some folks disregard my words, not because of what I’m saying but because of how I am saying it.
Fuck ‘em. On both counts. If your approach to the world and a fellow human is to disregard them based on appearance or which English words they are using? Fuck right the hell off!
So, to sum up, I adore profanity. I find it incredibly useful. It helps the reader focus. It makes my job as a writer easier. It is fun and it lets me disregard people that aren’t worth my time.
I’m sure there’s more reasons but it’s been a long day so I think I’m gonna fuck right off for the day.
Squirt Says…
So does this mean I get to curse now?
Dad Responds…
No.
