When a child is caught swearing the first person that he blames it on is his parents. He claims that he swears because his parents swear. When an adult swears too much, other adults think that the one using the swear words is juvenile. Ironic, huh? If swearing is not acceptable to adults for children or other adults then why is it used? But to find that out we must first find out why these words bad, and where they came from. There is no specific reason that certain words are worse than others, but the contexts in which some are used makes them unattractive to the ears. Let’s try a little exercise. Think of any “bad” word and the context in which you use it. Most of the words you are thinking about are used as what one popular television cartoon would call “sentence enhancers.” The reason these “sentence enhancers” are frowned upon by the public is because they have sexual connotations or are nasty put downs. The ever popular f-word is taboo in many languages. This is because the f-word means the same thing as fornicate. Fornication is against all Christian religions because the bible says that men and women should only have “relations” when they are married. For this reason most people frown upon the use of the f-word. The b-word has a simple meaning but it is used by most people in a derogatory way. The b-word is another name for a female dog. When you call a woman a b-word, you are essentially calling her a dog and from my knowledge no woman likes to be called a dog. As a society, America (for whatever reason), has decided to give words negative connotations, and use them in hurtful ways. Over the year these “bad” words have become more commonplace, and have been accepted more and more. Television shows are now allowed to use some of these words on primetime television. For this reason, the language of younger children is becoming worse and worse. Teenagers who swear are nothing new. I know everybody has heard that “cool” kid swearing up a storm in the hallway that every thinks looks like a complete idiot. But what do we say? Usually, we say nothing because this is such a common thing in American society. I’m not saying that I have never used a “bad” word, but there comes a point in everyone’s life where we need to tone it down. Let’s go back to the kid in hallway. That kid, who we will assume is 16, definitely has a terrible habit of swearing. Now let’s look ten years into the future, where the same kid is trying to keep a job. If his bad habit is not eliminated, this kid will now have a very difficult time to keep a job. The reason why is, adults look at the language as being juvenile and unacceptable so it’s time to try to break the habit now. Let’s face it: we can’t change how people think, but we can change the way that we talk. Like it? Hate it? Email at [email protected] Or post at my.hsj.org