Why the concept of "Swears" doesn't make a lot of sense: A Language analysis

     Something I have thought a lot about recently is language. Language is a weird phenomenon, especially when you get into differences between countries, dialects, accents slang, and other things of that nature. One could discuss topics like this forever if they were inquisitive enough, (or just high).

    What has specifically peaked my interested, and in return, has pissed me off, is the concept of swear words. I am referring to the English language only while writing this, and this could or could not apply to other languages, or even different regions where they have different dialects. I am from the Chicago region, but our language is similar to most of the United States, minus a few different word choices here or there.

    Everyone is taught from an extremely young age that swear words are bad; that we should never say them. As we grow older, we think it makes us look and sound cool to say them, so to do that, and to rebel, we say swear words like crazy. TV and radio stations block most of these words, to the point where only movies, books and video games have them in them, and that is only because they have predetermined ratings that warn us.

    So what is so horrendous about these words, that we should never say them in public, lest we burn in hell, or at least a prison cell? 

    I honestly couldn't tell you. Their "reasoning" is that we shouldn't say these bad words, because these are bad words. Well of course it is doomed to be that way, with that set up. You deem it a bad word, and thus, it must always be a bad word? I don't know. The other rationale is that it means a bad thing, which is just bubkiss. 

    It is bubkiss for a number of reason. Here is a list of the major swearwords (and a few other words that are close)

• Ass
• Bitch
• Damn
• Fuck
• Shit
• Cunt
• Fag

    Let's look at the first one, which is ass. Ass is a swearword, yet it can still be said on TV and radio, so it is consider not as bad. A little kid can still get in trouble for saying this word though. What does it mean? It is a synonym for butt, stupid person, or mean person, (or a donkey). So we can say butt over and over again, and it's fine, but if we say ass, it is suddenly bad. What sense does that make?

    Now look at bitch. It means female dog, bad/mean woman, or some variation of bad/mean woman. I am not sure if this can be said on TV or radio, but I think it makes less sense. Let's assume you are not talking about a female dog. Why are you penalized for calling someone a bad/mean woman? You could literally say how horrible this one woman is in the most lengthy and intelligent way, and that isn't as bad as saying bitch. Honestly, there should be more focus on being insulted rather than "saying a bad word". That can apply to pretty much any of these swear words.

    Shit I think makes the least sense. It is a synonym of poo, or figuratively means something bad.  I know this one cannot be said on radio or TV. For the love of science, why? Why can't I say a word that literally means poo, or a bad occurrence? If I want to say on the radio how bad my life has been recently, I can't say "My life has been so shitty recently", yet I can say "my life has been horrible. It has been terrible, torturous, etc etc. The latter sounds more graphic, and saying "shitty" sounds more realistic in my opinion. Yet somehow that is bad. Or even better, if I see some dog poop on the ground, I could get in trouble for saying "Look at that shit!", but saying "look at that fecomatter" is completely fine!

    What is with that? I don't get that at all. At least if  you talk about a word like fuck, that makes sense. It has so many meanings, that it can mean any number of bad things. Fuck is the only word in the English language, that can be used as an adjective, noun, verb and adjective. You can make a complete sentence with it too. Fuck fucking fuckers, FUCK! With the versatility of the word, it makes sense that it is considered bad. Well, we are 1 out of 4 for swear words.

    Now I am going to to skip damn, and get to words which I don't technically believe are swear words, but are still considered bad words. Cunt and Fag. Cunt is a synonym for vagina, or bad/mean woman. Forget the misogynistic aspects of this word, we are blocking the the use of the word vagina. Granted, I wouldn't want my kid running around screaming cunt or vagina, but that is what it comes down to. I guess this is a word that you shouldn't even have any use for until you are older.

   Lastly, fag, which has the biggest shitstorm attached with it. It is a derogatory word, which originally meant a bundle of sticks, but now means a gay person, or much more loosely used as a bad person. People bring up the point "If you call someone a fag, that really isn't gay, you are bringing both him and the entire gay community down!" and other crap like that. I am not going to get into that much, because that just starts a flame war, but this one somewhat makes sense, though not in the normal sense. It shouldn't be a swear word just because you are calling someone a synonym for the word gay. If you want to know my stance on that debate, just watch this South Park clip. It gives the sense of what I think about it.  (http://youtu.be/H7C0vd-L5lg) 

    What it all should boil down to is not that the word is a "swear word", but the fact that you are using a word or statement against someone; an insult. If I say my ass hurts, I shouldn't get in trouble. If I take a poop, say that my shit smelled, I shouldn't get in trouble. What really should be the issue is personally attacking someone. If I call someone a cunt, they shouldn't be offended at the word cunt, but the fact that I am personally verbally attacking them. If a game gets called a fag over Modern Warfare, they shouldn't be mad that someone called them gay, but if anything, be mad some douchenozzle is insulting them in the first place.

    Is it an insult to be called gay? It shouldn't be. Is it an insult to be called a vagina? It shouldn't be. "Oh boy, you called me gay. You are so clever. I am so offended, because I am not gay at all. How could you even think that? I am totally straight!"

    Really, this is what the emphasis should be put on. Instead of teaching kids these lists of words that they shouldn't say, we should just teach them fucking manners, and how not to verbally attack people to begin with. Then if we can accomplish that, then maybe we can begin to deconstruct the misuse of hot button words that somehow seems to fluster so many people nowadays.