http://anadder.com/what-swear-our-words-say-about-us-part-1
http://anadder.com/what-our-swear-words-say-about-us-part-2

I’d love to find an atheist youth from the inner city who takes offense at the use of profanity.

Well, I’m young and atheist, but I guess I’m suburban rather than inner-city (the ‘inner city’ of my home city is pretty small). And I don’t take offense at the use of profanity, but I don’t swear very much. If I use a swear word without thinking, it will be ‘bother’ or ‘damn’.

Mainly that’s because I’ve always been a rule-abiding type, so I’m not practiced at swearing safely. If I did it at all, I’d probably do it inappropriately. That would embarrass me.

That said, occasionally and very rarely I do swear deliberately: in poetry, or in an email or some other constructed verbal expression that I’ve thought through beforehand. In short, I respect swear words for their power, but I don’t use them lightly.

A law professor wrote an article titled, “Fuck.” It drew a ton of downloads on SSRN. (It’s a fun read, too. You can read it at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=896790 ). In fact, it drew so many downloads that some other professors argued that it skewed the statistics, leading to a follow up article about the reaction to Fuck. That’s at ( http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=971103 . )

Interestingly, in my race theory seminar, we discussed racial epithets just a few days ago. One student in the class is reading Randall Kennedy’s book (yes, that one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375713719 . It’s a legitimate and very interesting analysis, but it’s definitely edgy and potentially offensive to some students).

The students took different sides on the discussion — one African American man and a Latina suggesting that the word’s use is okay, in some contexts, in the African American community, while an African American woman and two Latinas suggested that it was never okay. Interesting to see how words mean such different things to different people, and in different contexts.

And that book sounds like the kind of thing we *want* our kids to read…wtf?

Exactly. Last year, I themed my high school English class with middle eastern novels. I selected novels on different sides of the debate, and the books led to some very interesting debate and discussion from high school students about war, politics, torture, terrorism, etc. I’m sure my class last year could have told Charles Gibson what they thought of the Bush doctrine. Maybe one of them could be Vice President.

Also, I’d love to show that “many uses” video in my class. I think every kid in the class would remember the parts of speech after watching it; however, I might get in trouble when they go home and tell their parents to “fuck the fucking fuckers.”

wren,

The Franken issue reminds me of a quote:

Take away the right to say “fuck” and you take away the right to say, “fuck the government.” –Lenny Bruce

I think Al Franken is smart and hilarious. I wonder if we can get Jon Stewart to run for office too.

markii, I’m looking forward to watching the entire Pinker video–the first five minutes has me very, very interested.

Matt, I like the intersection with the unfolding mysteries of sexuality (from the Mo perspective). And I, too, love the tension you get when you mix the sacred and the profane–definitely some synergy there.

To everyone who volunteered–thank you. You are all fucking awesome. I’m thinking of setting up a short run of guest posts–maybe we could call it “F–king Fridays” (to respect RSS subscribers who might want to filter posts in their readers based on titles). Let me know if you’re anxious to go first (a week from tomorrow).

Also, the “many uses” made the rounds in the heyday of napster (that makes me feel old, wow) as an mp3. I still have at least two copies of it in my iTunes playlist. “Why don’t you go outside and play hide-and-go-fuck-yourself?” Classic.

And that book sounds like the kind of thing we *want* our kids to read…wtf?

wren: that’s pretty funny (reminds me of the muslin sign—I wish Obama would come out & admit to being a half-breed muslin, it might lighten the tone of the election :-p) & I have to agree with Franken (who is awesome): if you’re not outraged, if DC doesn’t make you want to swear, you’re not fucking paying attention!

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

I don’t know if he cusses much in daily life. In my opinion, if used regulary, profanity has zero value. However, when it is not commonly used by someone, when they do use it, people pay more attention because it means they’re seriously passionate about what they’re saying.