The Mixed Messages Of Swearing

BW Media Spotlight is not completely a swear free zone but I choose not to use them in my work. Whether it’s an article, a comic, or a video I just don’t like using them, and there are plenty of people okay with that. If you see or hear hard cursing on this site it’s a video by someone else or something I linked to. This is my preference and it seems to work for me. I do swear in my personal life when I’m upset but I tend to prefer pseudo-curses because they’re fun and help me relax. Yes, I’ve heard that some mental health professionals thinks it’s a good emotional release to reduce stress but making myself laugh and being silly does that a lot better for me personally and I can do them in polite company. The stress release is still there and I exercise my creativity by coming up with new ones or properly using old ones.

However, the way we approach swearing and discuss the issue is a bit odd. Why do we get so bent out of shape about cursing in some situations but find it hilarious in others? This is not a discussion Hollywood can handle. I remember when the “S-word” was taboo but now even programs that censor other swears let that one through. (I blame that one episode of South Park but its message was about overuse of swearing as much as it was how uptight we are about them.) Maybe the hope is that we can weed these words out? Is that hope gone? The problem is they don’t do a good job in kids shows of discussing that issue.

Or a whole lot of other issues as sometimes TV for kids that address issues tend to mangle the message to the point that it either doesn’t make sense or cause whole other problems, with solving the actual problem not exactly assured. The Mysterious Mr. Enter is starting a new series of discussions called Mixed Messages tackling that very failure, and first up he goes into how these shows try to talk kids out of swearing. As you can guess there will be a lot of bad words in this one kind of by nature, so if you don’t like swearing, don’t click the play button.

Catch more Mr. Enter commentaries on his YouTube channel.

The final point is a bigger deal considering the whole COPPA issue. (Discussed here by Enter himself and updated here by some others.) This could lead to a larger discussion about words that are considered taboo, or only taboo if you’re part of a certain group or race or culture. There’s a larger debate going on about language and how we use it and I think that’s a good thing. As for me I will continue to not use actual harsh swearing as a personal preference. Outside of Captain Yuletide my current work does not target kids but there are adults who don’t like swears for whatever reason, myself included. And swearing does get overused, as if swearing itself or just being vulgar is the joke. If you’re going to swear, do it responsibly or the words have no meaning at all.