I have an ambivalent relationship with profanity. On one hand, many Anglo-Saxon swear words are obviously sexist. (As far as I'm aware, this is true of swear words in most other languages too.) On the other hand, they're useful for several purposes, none of which seems sexist in itself, but which seem sexist when taken as a group. For instance:
Expressing strong emotion: If everyone just stipulated that swear words were for expressing strong emotion, would their literal meanings really matter? I hear "damn", "hell", and "Jesus Christ" as mildly profane, despite the fact that I haven't believed in God since I was 14. If people could just leave off using "fuck" to indicate rape and sex interchangeably, it could be a perfectly nice hook to hang an emotion off of. For a native English speaker like me, nothing (including swear words in other languages) has quite the zing of a good Anglo-Saxon obscenity. It would be hard to give this one up: I would have no words left forcases of excruciating physical pain. (Since destroying my knees, I'm not really confident that I'll be able to avoid excruciating physical pain in the future.)
Sex: This might be a sub-category of "expressing strong emotion". Some words which have sexist connotations also strike me viscerally as sexy. (Actually, "fuck" comes to mind.) Whether I use these words or permit/ask my partner use them, depends on my mood and the situation. But it's odd that I get off on words that are attach to such deeply sexist concepts. Most of the things that I get off on aren't about sexism or female submission (Twisty Faster's views aside), but this one has me sort of worried.
Reclaiming: Some swear words have useful meanings, but terrible connotations. "Slut", "bitch", and possibly even "flaming faggot" come to mind. I have friends who use the word "slut" as a term of approval for both men and women, probably thanks to Easton and Liszt's delightful book, The Ethical Slut. Sometimes I have to tell myself that it's OK to be a bitch, i.e., to stop people-pleasing and get stuff done. "Flaming faggot" is a tough one, since I'm not a gay man and it wouldn't be an appropriate word for me to use in most public contexts, but I sometimes use it with my partner to express approval and affection for a certain aesthetic orientation. (My partner is a fairly swishy bisexual man, so I think he's allowed.)
Telling people off: This becomes difficult if try to use a word that I say I'm reclaiming. A few weeks ago, I heard some boys at the bus stop talking about how Miskatonic girls are sluts. I gave them an impassioned speech to the effect that they were sluts for sleeping with Miskatonic girls, which seemed to shut them up at least for a little while. I'm not really sure that was the right thing to say. How can I call them sluts, and rely on the negative connotations of the word, when I also call my friends sluts, and claim that I don't mean anything negative by it? Am I really allowed to capitalize on other people's sexist attitudes like that?
Indirect discourse: Sometimes people have sexist concepts, and I have to appeal to sexist concepts in order to explain their thoughts; e.g. "He called me a bitch." Sometimes, it's possible to paraphrase this one away; e.g., instead of saying "He thinks Miskatonic girls are sluts", saying, "He thinks Miskatonic girls are promiscuous, and he thinks that's a bad thing". But the paraphrase doesn't always make sense.
Each of these uses on its own seems like a fine way of reconciling swear words with an anti-sexist outlook. But when I use all of them together, I get words that switch between positive and negative in an unpredictable way ("bitch", "slut"), that indicate things I like, but sometimes have really bad connotations, or are ambiguous between sex and rape ("fuck", various body part words), and that retain aspects their original, problematic meanings (anything used in indirect discourse). Since I'm not willing to give up my expressive capabilities for the sake of ideological purity, it seems like the best I can do is to be sensitive to context, and try not to say inappropriate things by mistake.
I wonder what profanity would look like in a Utopian world. The best attempt I've seen is Ursula LeGuin's The Dispossessed, where most of the swear words relate to aspects of capitalism. "Profiteer" and "propertarian" are really obscene. But even LeGuin messes up at one point: about 100 pages after explaining why her Utopian society doesn't use the word "fuck" she has a character from that society use "fuckless" to mean "sexless".
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3 comments:
For a native English speaker like me, nothing (including swear words in other languages) has quite the zing of a good Anglo-Saxon obscenity.
Ironic that the words that are the most powerful in poetry (Anglo-Saxon) are also the best for swearing. I wish we could reserve 'fuck' for either the really good or the really bad events, but not both and certainly not for the mundane.
I think that you might consider adding another category, the scatological group, which is a far better fit than 'fuck' for the cowardly, inept, or ill-natured deeds. And I would not exclude the use of curses and swear words in other languages. You're not going to use them in everyday language so they retain more potency.
A common Polish curse is Psiakrew cholera, which is equivalent to 'fuck' even though the literal translation is Dog's blood and cholera. If I am really angry with someone, I would prefer he/she get a dose of canine fluids and an intestinal disease, rather than a bout of sex.
Thanks for a danm good post, P. Burke.
P.S. You will have to write another post explaining how you destroyed your knees, and I sincerely hope it was from something more pleasurable than repetitive genuflection in church.
j.b. = J. B. Kochanie
Just realized that I do not have the profile activated.
Hi, Kochanie. Thank you for the kind words; I feel flattered.
Eastern European languages are supposed to have a rich scatological vocabulary, much more so than Romance and Germanic languages. Psiakrew cholera is perfect; it almost makes me want to get angry at someone so I can use it.
The story of my knees is short and not all that exciting. I did a lot of long-distance running on concrete with poor form. I guess it is more fun than genuflecting, though.
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