Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Profane pronouncements are not always pretty or proper

I admit it: I have a foul mouth.

But instead of being chagrined by that fact, I revel in it. I love trashy talk. It gives me verbal purpose. When my boyfriend and I first began dating, he said, "You curse like a sailor, but I love it." And it's a good thing that he loves it, because I wasn't about to curb my cursing for him. Besides, he's not exactly saintly in his own speech.

That said, I do think cursing has its place. Of course it's not always "proper" to lace one's speech with profanity. Sometimes you have to formalize your speech, and forego the"fuck yous" and shelve the "shits" and banish the "bitches and bastards," and so on.

Furthermore, it's not always necessary to curse, and yet some people think it is. They think it gives them more "aggression credibility" if they pepper their pronouncements with profanity. Indeed, one of my least favorite columnists in our local weekly rag feels the need to toss in curse words every fifth sentence or so. It's annoying, and one of the reasons I dislike her column.*

And then I realized that I have used a lot of profanity in my blog so far. The thing is, I don't use profanity disingenuously. It comes from the gut; it's a visceral thing with me. I don't do it to be "cool." I do it because it flows naturally from my tongue, and anything that comes from my tongue comes first from my gut. There's no cerebral interference here; my gut does all my talking, while my brain often looks on in horror.

So the point of all this is to say that I am going to strive to be more cautious about cursing in my blog, because I realize that it can come across as disingenuous. It's not that I am worried about offending people with my potty mouth, it's that I don't want my profanity to be misconstrued. I don't want people thinking I feel that I MUST curse to get my point across. Very often profanity can UNDERMINE what we are trying to say, and I don't want that. Words and ideas are sacred, and can be tainted by profanity if it's misused.

On the other hand, cursing can enhance something being said, especially when the cursing in used in colorful or comic contexts.



*The other reason I dislike her column is that it sucks.

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