Don't like my potty mouth? Fuck you.

Edencafe.com recently brought up a topic that gets me going. The more I think about it, the more disgusted with people, in general, I become.

Not everyone, just people who insist on not thinking for themselves and then foisting their beliefs upon others through shame and humiliation.

I’m talking about swearing. Bad language. Potty mouth syndrome.
From a very early age, the idea that some words were so terrible we were not allowed to even use them has fascinated me.

Why? Where did these words come from? How did they become evil? Who decided they were evil words? Nobody has answers for me, when I ask. This is incredibly disappointing.

What it means is that most everyone has simply accepted that certain words in our language have a power too great to be used. That usage of these words can make you less than for no other reason than “we said so.”

Just stop and think for a moment. At some point, someone decides “gelatin” is obscene. You can use other words to describe the substance: Jello, dessert, wiggly-jiggly-stuff, but “gelatin” is bad, “gelatin” offends me. If you use the word, gelatin, you clearly lack the intelligence to describe it any other way.

Sounds retarded, no? And yet, it’s really no different than someone deciding shit was not an acceptable word to describe that brown stuff that comes out of your ass. Poo, #2, poop, excrement…all ok, but shit…shit is a bad bad word and using it makes you less than.

Why? Because we said so.

We, as a group, are quite good at maintaining the power these words have over us. My very favorite tactic to hate is that cliched argument that using swear words illustrates a lack of class, intelligence or vocabulary (or all three). Somehow, choosing these particular words, means we are not trying hard enough or we are just too stupid to know other words.

Fucking ridiculous.

I know people in Mensa who swear. I know writers and professors of literature who swear. In fact, few of the people I spend time with are of low intelligence or lack vocabulary. But they all swear in varying degrees. Even my 80 year-old grandmother, the woman for whom appearance and what others think is of primary importance, swears (but only in front of family, lol).

The point is, the idea that you are of low intelligence, low class or lack vocabulary is a weak argument designed to shame people into not using “bad” language. It is an attempt, conscious or not, to exert your will over others and enforce a rule you’ve decided should be followed.

For me, people who allow themselves to be embarrassed, uncomfortable or offended in the presence of swearing are, in fact, allowing an artificial societal construct control over them without giving one moment’s thought to why or to what end.

Make no mistake, taking offense to “bad” language is your choice. You have chosen to follow a societal “norm” whose existence serves no real purpose other than an opportunity to control and to sit in judgment of others, categorizing them as less than and more than.

And that is truly offensive.