The Student Room Group

Why are these swear words so offensive?

I believe it's the only word BBC censors. On here insults related to the female genitalia are censored but **** and **** aren't. IRL it is also much more acceptable for a woman to call a man any of the words related to his genitalia but try it the other way around and... yeah.
(edited 9 years ago)

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Who broke you, sweet child?
All swear words are only as powerful as you allow them to be. Frankly it's more insulting that comparing someone to female genitalia is seen as more insulting as comparing them to the same in males. I will confess I'm not keen on the use of the word gash though, I cringe everytime they say it on the Inbetweeners. Mostly because I always saw it as a word for a deep cut or something, it's not a pleasant association to have when it refers to women.
* have non swear uses which is probably why they aren't banned. * isn't banned and that refers to female genetalia so there isn't some conspriacy to only allow insults to do with male genetalia.
I think it's revealing that it is fiercely taboo when used as an epithet for a woman (but not for a man). It feels brutal and threatening, because women are seen as weak and oppressed, it's not too different to the way "n****r" is used differently by different groups based on power differential.

That's why it's worse than the male equivalents.

Of course in Catholic countries religious swearwords are more the big nasties, and even where that is now old hat they find scatological swearwords much more offensive than sexual ones.
Reply 5
Original post by elpistolero7
Who broke you, sweet child?


lol
When you think about it, swear words don't actually mean anything that bad :s-smilie: They still sound horrible though!
The worst swear word is meecrob. Rep to anyone who gets it :biggrin:
Swear words are made nasty by their context and interpretation of the listener.

An example:

One can say 'prick a finger'.

but you can't say

*

Exactly the same words, entirely different context and interpretation simply by juxtaposition.
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 10
Well, Dick can mean Richard, and cock has a few different meanings, that's why these words aren't censored.

It's not nice to go around insulting men or women using offensive swear words in real life. It's not cool, and it's not funny. It doesn't make you look hard. It's just wrong.
Original post by jamieTT
I believe it's the only word BBC censors. On here insults related to the female genitalia are censored but dick and cock aren't. IRL it is also much more acceptable for a woman to call a man any of the words related to his genitalia but try it the other way around and... yeah.


That might have something to do with the fact that "Dick" is a name, and censoring "cock" would also mean the words "cockroach" and "peacock" would be censored.
Original post by fnatic NateDestiel
The worst swear word is meecrob. Rep to anyone who gets it :biggrin:


I get it; Eric Cartman.
Original post by The Socktor
I get it; Eric Cartman.


yeah, thats right +4.

Spoiler

Original post by The Socktor
That might have something to do with the fact that "Dick" is a name, and censoring "cock" would also mean the words "cockroach" and "peacock" would be censored.


Rubbish, you could make swear filters more advanced than that using algorithms from at the very latest 1964 (source: cursory Wikipedia browse). Even down to the capital on "Dick".

The reason why these words are allowed on the BBC, and indeed on TSR, is they are simply not as offensive in the vernacular as ****, ****, or ****, which as you see have been duly filtered here.

The rise of the doctrine of equality has brought with it a new class of discriminatory swear words, such as "n****r", "bint", "faggot". The concurrent rise in sexual freedom has brought a sharp reduction in the power of most of the sexual and scatological swear words, so that the least useful of them have been supplanted in the ranking by the discriminatory swear words.

This explains the rapid acceptance of less offensive swear words such as dick, cock, bugger and bloody on the BBC and in wider society.

This parallels the situation in France, for example. As the notion of secularism established itself in French society, religious swear words declined in use, to be replaced mainly with scatological and sexual swear words. However, New France did not experience the Revolution, and thus, in Quebec today, it is most shocking to swear on the tabernacle or the communion cup.

The same happened here after the religious wars/reforms/toleration in the 15/1600s, after a while, "God damn it" or "zounds" or "gadzooks" became as nothing, or even ridiculous. Where the Puritan tradition carried on in America, "hell" and "damn" remain controversial religious swear words to this day. Words that had been perfectly workaday, even medical, in medieval times, such as ****, **** and ****, were elevated to taboo to fill the vacuum.
(edited 9 years ago)
Apparently Australians use that particular word as a term of endearment for each other
Reply 16
Original post by scrotgrot
I think it's revealing that it is fiercely taboo when used as an epithet for a woman (but not for a man). It feels brutal and threatening, because women are seen as weak and oppressed, it's not too different to the way "n****r" is used differently by different groups based on power differential.

That's why it's worse than the male equivalents.


I'm not buying the women are weak part, not entirely anyway. If you think of all the family related insults , they are all about women (mother, sister, wife). Not because they are weak or ''property'', but because they are seen as the most ''precious'' members of the family. They are seen as angelic creatures of superior morality and behaviour. This is why men used to kiss their hands, get up from the table or lift their hats in the presence of a woman. You don't do that for your dog or your car, do you? Even in Christianity, who is the most pious of all humans? The women, they stick with Jesus till the end and they are the first people he reveals himself to after being crucified, while every single man abandons him.

These symbols are not women by coincidence:



Original post by jamieTT
I'm not buying the women are weak part, not entirely anyway. If you think of all the family related insults , they are all about women (mother, sister, wife). Not because they are weak or ''property'', but because they are seen as the most ''precious'' members of the family. They are seen as angelic creatures of superior morality and behaviour. This is why men used to kiss their hands, get up from the table or lift their hats in the presence of a woman. You don't do that for your dog or your car, do you? Even in Christianity, who is the most pious of all humans? The women, they stick with Jesus till the end and they are the first people he reveals himself to after being crucified, while every single man abandons him.

These symbols are not women by coincidence:





OK, fair enough. Good analysis, I usually see that myself. Though I think the fact that women are objectively not much good at defending themselves *at the same time as* being essential to the survival of the tribe only doubles the preciousness with which they are treated.
Reply 18
Original post by scrotgrot
OK, fair enough. Good analysis, I usually see that myself. Though I think the fact that women are objectively not much good at defending themselves *at the same time as* being essential to the survival of the tribe only doubles the preciousness with which they are treated.


Ofc, women being physically weaker and the bottleneck of procreation only enhances their status. Also why so many prehistoric and ancient cultures worshiped the mother goddess. It still happens today, look how much attention women's issues get compared to men's and how something awful happening to a woman is seen as much sadder than if it happened to a man.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by jamieTT
Ofc, women being physically weaker and the bottleneck of procreation only enhances their status. Also why so many prehistoric and ancient cultures worshiped the mother goddess.


What do you think drove the change to worshipping sky daddies? Must have been something to do with settled agriculture but I'm buggered if I can work out what.

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