” What did you say?!” Mrs. Blaire exclaimed much to my arousal. I wondered; what could I have possibly said that peaked the attention in the class so abruptly. Silence. She glared down at me as I stared at everyone else as they glared at me. As her fiery eyes attempted to fry my brain, she continued to wait for a response. More silence. She must have heard what I said. Did she want me to repeat it? What did she want me to say? “I said ‘Damn! I forgot my homework’.” Was saying damn a horrible action? Was she that mad about the homework? The silence got blown apart by the ringing of the school bell but my confusion remained. I didn’t hesitate, however, and darted out of class. The next day, Mrs. Blaire watched as I walked into class, as if my return was unexpected. She began by addressing the previous day’s interjection. “Some words shouldn’t be spoken. Some words aren’t pleasant to the ears, aren’t enjoyable to the listener, aren’t amusing to the audience. People use some words because they don’t know how to express what they feel. ” What do you mean?” I thought to myself. That’s the perfect way to express how I felt.
Mrs. Blaire was forever an infamous English teacher at school. She would change rooms and grade levels quite frequently, which made it impossible to predict who she would prey on next. She wore well-designed clothing like no other teacher and walked prudently with an unbeatable glare that brought about feelings of inferiority to the students she taught. She was effortlessly the tallest teacher and by far the boldest. Her classrooms always felt the coldest, but no one bothered to question her about it. No teacher argued with her and but the unheard complaints could stack a mountain. Even students she didn’t teach despised her as she would stop them in the hallways to scold their behavior, attitude, or attire.
Conflicts with Mrs. Blaire arose again the following week. We were assigned a group project, but I however, forgot to do my part. Feeling demeaned that I had let down my classmates down, I let another one of those “violent” words rip through my speech. “F***”. It was the only way to break the tension and unease I felt from this distressing situation. “I’m calling your parents.” Mrs. Blaire proclaimed. “What a b****”, a student remarked in a low voice. That was the first time I heard someone else swear. Was I the cause of it? I never swore without reason but this guy was certainly out of line. Swiftly, I turned my head to see who it was. The faces were all identical, blank, life-less, and united in their hatred for Mrs. Blaire. It was as if they all thought the same thing: “That Mrs. Blaire…what a b****”. Fearing that their thoughts would consume me, I fixed my eyes back on Mrs. Blaire. Just as my thought provoked the class, their reaction bounced back to me. Anger of being an underling in the presence of Mrs. Blaire possessed them all. I got scolded by my parents at home and promised that such an incident won’t happen again.
In school, it was a “cool” thing to blatantly cuss when mad. It wasn’t the fact that you were angered by a situation but the fact you could declare words that others dared not whisper. The kids would grin as they cussed as if they felt a great sense of accomplishment. The teachers, however, made sure to supply a punishment for their “derogatory speech”. Day by day, I would wonder, what made these words fun for the youth but disrespectful for the adults? I would ask my parents and they would respond, “..Because it’s impolite and disrespectful”.
Maybe it isn’t as horrible as it is depicted to be. Living in a world where you are expected to be polite, perhaps one must occasionally break this barrier to satisfy their inner rebel. A universal idea may be at work here. After all, numerous languages have swear words. But why are only certain words unpleasant? It can only mean that these words were designed to be unpleasant so that your speech could accurately match your emotion.
On our way home from school, my parents, occasionally, would argue on the phone with a company representative of some sort. Their volumes would intensify to a point where I can hear the voice on the phone quite audibly. “That’s bulls***”, my dad would say. He always used that phrase. He would then turn his head quickly to see if I was in the back seat. Sure enough, there I was, pretending to be too absorbed by thought to pay attention to his feisty argument. I thought of how pointless it was to pretend I didn’t hear; for I already knew of the existence of these words and it was only choice that decided when I would use them. He would then turn off the phone without another word as we would ride in silence for the remainder of the way home. My parents wanted to prevent me from getting into a habit of swearing so they wouldn’t use such language around me but it was their habit as well. They were “hiding the cigarette but I still smelt the fumes”.
I was in error. By only examining people who used swear words, I wasn’t seeing the solution that others used when in a tight situation where swearing was an easy option. The solution I gained from thorough research was quite simple but difficult to implement. Euphemism. The idea is to replace the cuss word with a lesser word; “Fudge, crap, shoot”. The problem was that in the heat of the moment, you most likely wouldn’t say “Friggin niblets!” or “Son of a biscuit!”. It wasn’t natural but you’ll probably feel silly afterward which might calm you down.
Sadly, my efforts were in vain as I continued to cuss in intense arguments and situations. I wished not to be impolite as that would give a bad impression but this task proved to be quite the challenge. This is much harder than I thought it would be. “Nugget sauce!”
The fault I find in using swear words is that it epitomizes your character in a negative way. It labels you as part of a group you might not belong to. I, for instance, am 17, and when I use cuss words, I feel it characterizes me as the rebellious, arrogant type of the adolescence population rather than the sensible, charismatic type. This seemingly gross oversimplification might seem implausible, but I’m sure that it resonates among individuals like me, who make efforts not to use profanity. It has come to my attention, however, that adults, even professionals, also swear from time to time. I’m not quite sure what principle permits adults a “leisure” that is discouraged among kids but it suggests to me that maturity reveals things about communication that kids like me might never figure out.
The usage of swear words in today’s society hints, to me, a bold claim about the essence of language; Language can’t exist with profane vocabulary. A nation needs a language that can accurately describe possible circumstances and situations and vulgar words work perfectly in describing unpleasant occurrences and thus, swear words live on.