Curses, Foiled Again!

I know what you're thinking: Æther, you haven't posted in forever. I thought you were dead. Think again! The effect of not having classes that keep me engaged in pondering things compounded with coming home from work physically exhausted takes its toll. In addition, I am loathe to talk about myself as the main topic of this blog, though that may change in the future. To all of this I digress.

Trending topics have lead me to think about Puritanism in America. Of particular interest to me is the issue of cursing. As a society, we frown on people for the use of certain words or phrases of vulgar nature. True, there have been trends in becoming more lax with many words in this area, but many are still considered verboten in the public setting. I myself have a distaste for hearing many of the curses that are uttered. Still, why?

It seems silly to even be concerned with it. After all, words are nothing physical. When most people use a curse, I doubt they are actually picturing the meanings of the words they are saying. Rather, they are simply expressing frustration.

Recently, I've tried to understand why we try to shield children from these words. I suppose it's to try to prevent them from using them, but this appears to be a losing battle. It's not as if most children fail to be exposed to such via some channel or another. The Internet is going to expose them if nothing else. I know it probably springs from children being viewed as pure and that curses destroy that purity, but they're only words, after all. If they're going to be exposed to such language anyway, what difference does it make if we have an age based double standard?

I suppose, however, that I should have clarified at the beginning that when I say curses, I'm not referring to racial slurs, which I consider another category. I can understand why we would not want out children to be exposed to racial slurs because they teach them a negative way of categorizing people in unfair or hateful ways. However, racial slurs are meant to hurt while curses are meant to express frustration, so the difference should be clear.

Even so, why do I cringe and judge someone poorly when I hear them use a vulgar phrase? It defies reason, but it's just the way we're taught to be, I suppose.