Less Filling! Profanes Great!

October 27, 2005 · Filed Under zeitgeist

A fascinating posting over at WorldMagBlog, entitled “Cussing Lite” brings to light an interesting topic. Namely, the emergence, over the past 25 or so years, of an acceptance of so-called substitute swear words. Words like “crap,” “suck,” & “freakin” have become accepted, though thinly-veiled, substitutes for their stronger, and still somewhat unacceptable, counterparts. Although it must be noted that even the stronger “real” cuss words are gaining more currency & losing their stigma. Good or bad, right or wrong, welcome or not, it is happening.

I remember when these words were still quite unacceptable in common conversation. Granted, saying them wouldn’t get you in trouble as much as dropping a “real” f- or s-bomb, but my parents and all the fine Lutheran school teachers I encountered during my school years still wouldn’t have left such substitutions go uncommented. It’s truly interesting just how cultural changes happen so subtly while taking place, yet so clearly & obviously with even a little bit of hindsight.

It’s a long way from that Lutheran H.S. North locker room, in the late fall of 1982 (maybe 1981 - I don’t recall exactly if it was my freshman or sophomore year), when I got busted for dropping an f-bomb. I can still remember it happening, walking down the corridor from the varsity lockers to the freshman/JV lockers & seeing my buddy Miles Knapp (I was just finished with cross country practice & he had just finished football practice…), and exclaiming to him how f’ing cold it was outside. I can still see the look on his face after I said it, followed by my fully rounding the corner & seeing Coach Schuldheisz standing there. Needless to say, he disapproved. And I got the laps (and laps, and laps…) of punishment for about the next week or so to prove it!

Great. Now I’m feeling old.
-ghp