Well I swear
Gentle reader, it has been brought to my attention of late that I am perhaps... well... a bit of a pottymouth.
Last night Beloved and I had a fight. It wasn't any big deal, only with the pregnancy hormones and all, it did get entertainingly noisy. (Very entertaining, apparently, as around the time I was yelling and sobbing, he was laughing helplessly. Apparently my tantrums are "adorable" and I look "like a little girl who's lost her lollipop". Now, it's probably a good thing that he finds all this endearing rather than, y'know, horrible and unlovable, and the laughter was accompanied by hugs, but still, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Anyway.) So afterwards, he mentioned hesitantly: "...you do swear quite a lot when you're angry."
Well really. Isn't that the whole point of swearing? Shouldn't I be entitled to access the full range of human expression in moments of extremity?
But then I started thinking about my good friend Vivaldifan, whose employer has enlisted a rather stern spam-blocking service that puts all emails containing certain questionable vocabulary in quarantine. Apparently the profanitybot has taken a particularly strong dislike to me. I casually asked t'other day which of his friends got caught in spammy limbo most often. His answer: "Totally you, sailor."
Fancy that! I always thought that the reason people sometimes looked, well, a bit startled at my more colourful imprecations was that they didn't expect anything remotely earthy from someone looking quite so pre-Raphaelite. ("Sweetness and light and daisies" is apparently the impression I give, as long as I don't open that delicate mouth.) But maybe it's not just the exciting contrast that gives pause. Maybe I should actually try to be a little bit more ladylike in my discourse.
What do you think? Should I swear off the swearing? I mean, not entirely, that would never work. But as a creative challenge. I dunno. Do I really cuss that much?
Huh.
7 comments:
Well... are you expressing yourself with creativity and verve, or are you using curses as an emphatic crutch?
If the former, then curse on, sweet twinkletits. If the latter, then back the fuck off.*
*This opinion brought to you by one who just had to clean an entire bowl of soup out of the office microwave where she had spilled it, accompanied by a soft chorus of "fuck. FUCK."
I dunno, I do think of you as a person who has invented their own swear word ("twunt", of course). But it's not like I find the swearing you do offensive or anything. And you've got a good couple of years before having to decide whether to worry about Intarsia imitating you.
everymoment
This is interesting synchronicity, because I've also recently been thinking that I swear a tad too much, and it's becoming tricky to suppress it in front of students. (Hormones, of the non-pregnant variety, also play a particularly evil role here). I have been trying to cut down on "Fuck" except for emergencies, and have tried to substitute "Frell" and "Frack" instead, on the grounds that sf addiction has to have some practical uses. So far this isn't going well, but I persevere; you may find, as I did, that you are actually swearing a lot more than you think you are.
Alas, I can't lay claim to inventing twunt. I think it might have been Scaryduck who did that, or at least popularised it.
I'd like to think my swearing is mostly on the "creativity and verve" side of things, but extemp may well be right and my self-image isn't up to date with my active vocabulary. I'll endeavour to be more ladylike and see how that goes.
1) I *hate* being laughed at when I'm mad. Unfortunately, many people (including my *darling* younger brother) know this, and use it strategically against me. Damn them.
2) I think I must give the 'sweetness and light and daisies' impression too - not only do people often look surprised when I swear, but they also apologise to me when *they* do. Er, people? I went to a fairly rough public school. I work on an army base. I have heard it all before.
3) I haven't noticed you swearing that much. And sometimes swearing's important to get the point across, right? I'm sure you don't just randomly cuss at customers or at little old ladies on the street. (Do you? Ha!)
Swearing is fine. Sometimes you need to modulate it to the immediate environment*, but there is nothing inherently wrong with it :)
* A frequent problem when returning from the military to the academic sphere.
My mom swore like a sailor but only while angry. It kinda helped us know she was serious.
But laughing - sounds like Beloved and FrontRunner (my guy) should talk. My last major tantrum was greeted with a loving smile as I "looked so cute" when raging...rather hard to make one's point when someone loves you blindly.
Post a Comment