So I really couldn’t be fucked to get out of bed this morning. The fucking cold weather and fucking rain, what a fucking way to start the day. Fuck has got to be the best word that accurately expresses the emotions you’re feeling at that point in time. Is Fuck even a swear word anymore? Or has it become so embedded in our generation vocabulary that it’s lost all meaning? Profanity has become so part of our culture that we don’t even realise we’re swearing most of the time. In saying this, you wouldn’t just start dropping the f-bomb when in certain situations, but why is that we’re okay being ruthless when with our closest friends?
Baruch and Jenkins (2007), looks into swearing within the workplace and how it may have a positive effect on how the business is run. The study found that profanity allowed employees to release frustrations, express emotions and also improved in social interactions between colleagues. To me, it kind of just seems like whatever business they used as research, just loved having massive piss ups during the week, but who the fuck cares right? Going back to swearing in different contexts, Baruch and Jenkins (2006) does mention that taboo language should be kept internally within the business so that customers don’t see them as deviating from societal norms.
So even though we feel like we’re in a safe environment to blow our mouths off once in a while, be aware of the position you are in at that point in time.
Reference:
Baruch, Y & Jenkins, S. (2007). Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: When anti-social becomes social incivility is acceptable. Leadership and Organisation Development, 6, 492-507.
Baruch, Y & Jenkins, S. (2007). Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: When anti-social becomes social incivility is acceptable. Leadership and Organisation Development, 6, 492-507.
Hi Julia, wow reading this with the rain hammering down outside, it really is fucking cold and wet and shitty out there. I wouldn’t go as far to say it’s the best word it’s great for when you have stub your toe or have had a really bad day. I would like to point out that I still think fuck is a swear word coming from me, however shit has become more of a reference to stuff. “What did you do on the weekend?” “Aww you know surfed and shit”. It seems to have lost all of its veracity as a curse word and has become a mundane filling word. I think this stems back to Anna Wizbecca’s reading on bloody that swearing has become so inculcated into our everyday norm having the freedom to express bloody has opened the gateway into many other forms of swearing as we become more desensitised we use it more and more. Karen Schulz uses the example of the infamous children’s book ‘Go the Fuck to Sleep’ as an example of how swearing has become a celebrated act the book became a parody on a face book page and quickly gathered speed and became one of the highest books ordered through Amazon. So what drew them in? As many parents would know the child like everything else dictates allot of what goes on so we have an insight into relationship between the exhausted parents and the child and the expression of desperation used in the word fuck?
ReplyDeleteOne of the books lines reads
The flowers doze low in the meadows
And high on the mountains so steep.
My life is a failure; I'm a shitty-ass parent.
Stop fucking with me, please, and sleep.
This is not a spoof of Goodnight, Moon. This is Battle Hymn of the Tired Father.
This example shows how swearing has become an anomaly it is ok and not ok to use in a children’s book many would state that it is designed for the parents but it is delivered as a children’s book leaving an opening to be passed to the child. It is with examples like these that we see how swearing is becoming rather ingrained from a very early age.
Schulz, Kathryn. "Ode to a Four-Letter Word; And I don't mean 'okay.'." New York 13 June 2011. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.
Hello Julia. :)
ReplyDeleteI liked your post, you examples were quite entertaining, and your picture are awesome.
I just have one thing to add to your pretty post.
your study by Baruch and Jenkins (2007), you stated that swearing was a stress reliever in the workforce, im thinking that you should specify what line of work. I'm assuming you mean blue collar employment, because i'm not entirely sure that would help if someone were a doctor operating and pocked something they shouldn't have.
This reference shows an article explaining some workplace etiquette in swearing
Underwood, R. (2003. Office handbook: Chapter 32: Workplace swearing. Fast Company, 74, 50.