In my case, especially if I am around bawdy, licentious, hedonistic, blue collar workers ......just the sound of their sinful, dirty, naughty language makes me feel faint.......sometimes I almost feel like I might swoon. And if it carries on long enough it brings on my recurring affliction of hysteria, which is problematic in my case since it is incurable.........being male, they can't help by giving me a hysterectomy. seriously, though, I agree with others who advise showing respect by toning your oaths down to whatever those you are with are comfortable with....so if you are with Don King, you can shout all the mofo gd cussin you like, but if you are with Mother Teresa, even 'what the hell?' is definitely not on.
I agree this more about manners, but one should apply manners equally. Also, I am sure a professor doesn't need a student running her or his classroom, no matter how well-intentioned the student might be. If the student doesn't want that language around him or her, that's another matter.
It's an issue where we all draw the line in different places. My problem isn't so much which words are used but *how* they are used. If someone drops a book on her foot and says $*@#, that doesn't bother me. Now if that same person disagrees with me and tells me to go $*@# myself, that's more offensive. If a student in a nursing class refers to urination with an Anglo-Saxon word, that doesn't hit me the same way as some of the more gratuitous things I've heard in a classroom. By the way folks, I'm about the same age as Duncan and I teach a composition class at an open admissions state university. My female students have more or less the same vocabulary as the male students, so any sense of concern for women was knocked out of me long ago. If anything, the women tend to be a bit more bawdy with their language--almost as if they feel they have something to prove by using such words. That gets old really fast. Some of these words have a stronger effect in print than when spoken. Writers need to be aware that what hits them one way will not necessarily hit their readers the same way. It's especially important to think about this when you don't know who all will read what you've written. As a result, when students use "disputable" language, I remind them of this because it is--or ought to be--a teachable moment. When we write something that will appear on the Net, we never know who all will see it and how that person will respond. For that reason, we all need to be much more cautious about what we say in chat rooms and bulletin boards than we would in situations where we know everyone else very well.
i agree with the part about being respectful and there is a time and place for everything.. but...... being in college around people of all ages, you have to expect that; foul language that is. we are all adults here, im sure we have all heard an occasional "fuck" or "bitch". and me, i have one foul mouth. i dont swear at work or in public, unless im with people i feel comfortable with. my point is... take a 35 year old that has always cursed no matter what, and put him/her in a classroom.. they are not going to think anything of it to drop an f-bomb.
hell with that shit dude, they're just words and the only reason people take such excess in using them is because the humor and drive to use them is made by the people who would make them foopaa. Just like how the US is the biggest drug market in the world because our culture is the one that on its most public morale level gives the highest opposition to drug use of anywhere in the world. Its a very accurate correlation in many things. Don't waste your thought on words I find it sad that people are so petty as to bring themselves to the level of judging people over a god damn choice of vocabulary, and even sadder that their blunt oppisition to it fuels the excessive use of these words. As far as respect goes if you don't like the way someone talks how are you not disrespecting them by making a prejudgement on their character by their choice of their vocabulary. If I am not swearing around someone I ussually loathe them for their ignorance over such a petty thing and quite frankly I see that as a much greater disrespect than letting a four letter word slip for sometimes they just find a place in good emphasis of the english language. Some choice of vocabulary has a tendency to piss even me off. One can say ****** if its not serious. I don't like it but its to widespread to blame people for calling something gay if they don't like it, yet if its done in excess I do truely denounce this as it lays a serious stereotype into people, kinda like calling something jewish. Thats the only stuff that can really get to me if expressed in a serious or excessive context
It might just be me, I don't know, but I believe "potty language" is protected by the first ammendment.
