Foul mouth complaint

Candy

Candy

Biscuit Tin Guardian
Location
West Yorkshire, UK
I've found languages fascinating for a long time, infact one of the things that made me want to work with people with dementia was how extraordinarily communicative they were, despite often no longer having recourse to what we would call proper language. My lovely mum developed dementia when she was younger than I am now, yet remained a good communicator if you knew how to listen, for most of her life. Swampy, I love your story of your father and the f*****g Gruffalo!
 
SwampDonkey

SwampDonkey

HAH said:
Absolutely this - there’s a whole raft of people reclaiming c**t as a simple description of a beautiful thing, because (like it or not) many of our insulting words describe women (bitch, cow) or female genitalia (t**t) and there’s definitely a misogynist element to it.

I heard years ago that lots of our most ‘offensive' single syllable English swear words were from Old Norse, and the ‘civilising’ Anglo Saxons looked down on them as rough and for ill-educated people but apparently that's rubbish: Susie Dent: how English swear words went away from the holy and back to the shit again
I love that the Victorians thought the word 'trousers' was filthy, so replaced it with ‘inexpressibles’, ‘sit-upons’, and ‘round-me-houses’ :rofl:
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I really like mossy cottage as a description of a ladies front bottom it really makes me giggle
 
Xena Dog Princess

Xena Dog Princess

Location
Wellington, NZ
Both OH and I swear like sailors and never moderated our language around Dawn. It wasn't until she was 11 that she realised that she could swear around us and that we wouldn't care. I've talked to her about swearing responsibly i.e. not around teachers and she's taken that on board My tolerance for swears certainly comes in handy now that I work with teenagers - they do not moderate their language around staff AT ALL.
 
Candy

Candy

Biscuit Tin Guardian
Location
West Yorkshire, UK
Aitch said:
C**t and F**k were normal, everyday words in medieval times. They were just as normal as "you" or "horse". Royalty used these words. Then the church decided that any reference to sex or sexual organs was bad, Death to a normal, healthy verbalisation. It is only now that we are becoming able to talk about sex in a healthy way again.
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I think that was about the same time as the Clergy decided that women, on the whole were evil. Was that about the same time as the Maleus Malificarum was published? It only takes a teensy read of that to understand what women were/ have been/ are up against.
Pee Ess. I had an absolutely lovely Dad and husband and even Little Brother will pass in a crowd, so I hope none of our male participants in this feel that it's directed at them.
 
Boogie

Boogie

Moderator
Location
Manchester UK
I think the usage of swear words reflects the attitudes of society to these words and what they represent. Female genitalia - well, female bodies in general, including periods, menopause, etc. - have long been considered a lot more of a taboo topic than male genitalia and male bodies.

Of course, in today's society, these taboos are challenged, and with that, the usage of female genitalia as the most taboo swear word is also challenged.

Changing times.
 
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