The act of cursing, or using profanity, has long been a part of human culture and language. Whether used casually in everyday conversation or to express frustration or anger, cursing can be seen as an art form in itself. While some may view cursing as offensive or vulgar, others appreciate the raw and expressive nature that curse words can convey. Cursing can vary greatly across different cultures and languages, with words and phrases holding different levels of offensiveness or taboo. What may be considered a mild curse in one language could be interpreted as highly offensive in another. This highlights the subjective nature of cursing, as its impact and meaning can differ greatly depending on the context and the audience.

Don’t Watch Your Mouth. Swearing Can Actually Be Good for Your Health

Share on Pinterest Using swear words can have a wide range of positive effects on your well-being, including pain relief and helping you cope with emotionally challenging situations. LWA / Dann Tardif / Getty Images

• Studies show cursing during a physically painful event can help us better tolerate the pain.
• Experts say using curse words can also help us build emotional resilience and cope with situations in which we feel that we have no control.
• Swearing can also provide a range of other benefits, including as a means of creative expression, relationship development, or simply as a way to allow different identities to harmonize by signaling that you’re relaxed around the other person.

We’ve all had plenty of reasons to want to drop more than one f-bomb in the last year.

Living in a pandemic has given us all cause to express our frustrations, whether from the ongoing confusing restrictions to the fear of what may happen if you contract the coronavirus.

But used appropriately and responsibly, it turns out that sporadic outbursts of cursing, cussing, swearing — whatever the heck you may call it — are a good way to process the chaos of being human in a world where much isn’t under our control.

“Swearing can have a truly liberating effect when we’re feeling bottled up with frustration. Saying the F-word, or similar, can have an immediate calming impact on the difficult emotions we might be experiencing,” Dr. Raffaello Antonino, a counseling psychologist and the clinical director and founder of Therapy Central, told Healthline.

Using profanity remains a controversial issue because we are living, feeling human beings who are tossed into a complex world built long before we were born.

There’s shared experiences, language, social norms, and the constant battle between inanimate objects and fragile human beings with complex sensory networks.

But those networks created language, and in that language are many four-letter words, some of which only a devil would advise to utter during a worship service, despite the heavenly number of combinations in which they can be used.

This includes the seven words George Carlin so famously pointed out that you can’t say on television.

“People often swear when they are stressed, faced with a challenge, or are otherwise experiencing an increase in the activation of their sympathetic nervous system. When people swear, they experience a release, either slight or significant, in physiological and psychological stress,” Dr. Kyle Zrenchik, PhD, a couples and sex therapist and co-founder of All In Therapy, told Healthline.

“What a tremendous gift we have: no pills, no side effects, no copays. We have a totally natural, free, and readily accessible way to take the edge off of things, even if just a bit,” he said.

One such way is by aiding in short-term pain relief, like when you stub your toe on the coffee table.

Researchers at Keele University in the United Kingdom found that people could endure the stinging and numbing pain of holding their hands in ice water longer if they were able to fire off expletives in the process compared to saying more neutral words.

The research , published in The Journal of Pain in 2011, concluded that swearing during a painful experience could trigger an emotional response, the body’s “fight or flight” response, and a surge of adrenaline.

But there’s a notable catch: Those same effects weren’t seen in participants who admitted to the highest levels of everyday swearing, defined up to 60 swear words per day.

“Swearing is a very emotive form of language, and our findings suggest that overuse of swear words can water down their emotional effect,” Dr. Richard Stephens, a senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University and co-author of the study, said in a statement when the research was released.

“Used in moderation, swearing can be an effective and readily available short-term pain reliever if, for example, you are in a situation where there is no access to medical care or painkillers. However, if you’re used to swearing all the time, our research suggests you won’t get the same effect,” he said.

It’s almost as if cursing too much can lose its effectiveness, so swearing is most impactful when used less often (which your mother would most likely prefer).

Experts say cursing can act as a coping mechanism to a variety of different adverse events.

“The way swearing works, in these circumstances, is as a form of coping mechanism to deal with the emotional consequences of various difficult situations, especially those we have little or no control over and that cause us to feel disappointed, that we’ve been treated [unfairly], experience persistent or acute physical pain, and so on,” Antonino said.

Antonino said humans are resilient to adversity in part because we’ve developed ways to cope, regardless of whether such coping responses will actually be helpful in changing a person’s circumstances.

He explained that, in situations when nothing really can be done to “resolve” our issue — like when we receive a very annoying email from our boss or learn of yet another spike in COVID-19 cases in our area — there may not be a single effective action we can take to fix the problem.

“But swearing in these circumstances can represent an important way of releasing the difficult emotional reactions provoked by such events,” he said.

In other words, firing off some four-letter words when things are bad won’t actually help make the situation better, but it does offer a bit of respite that could be enough to help us weather a brief storm.

And while some research suggests swearing more can dull its pain-reducing effects, Antonino said it can help build our resilience in the face of potential new adverse circumstances we have little control over.

“It’s important to point out that although swearing will not resolve our issues practically, it can help calm and resolve our internal emotional imbalance caused by those experiencing these external issues,” he said. “In essence, swearing can be an effective short-term emotion-regulation tool.”

Zrenchik said there are other benefits, including creative expression, relationship development, or simply allowing our identities to harmonize.

“Most people swear, whether they admit it or not. They may not swear in front of others, but most people swear,” Zrenchik said.

“When people are forced to talk differently when interacting with people than when they talk to themselves or close friends, they develop two competing ‘identities,’” he said.

But by allowing ourselves the freedom to swear when talking to others, like we do when we talk to ourselves, Zrenchik said it allows people the freedom to live a bit more authentically and honestly.

This not only creates greater congruence of identity, but also helps develop relationships.

“It signals to each person that they can relax, be themselves, and speak freely without fear. We tend to ‘watch our language’ around people we cannot fully be ourselves around,” he said.

“Conversely, shared swearing allows us a way to know we are amongst friends. Then, we are more equipped to build an honest and authentic relationship,” Zrenchik said.

But there’s a difference between swearing with someone and swearing at someone.

While there’s actual evidence to back up the unrelenting urge to shout a few bad words into the abyss, that’s where it should go — not to the person scanning your items at a grocery store or the person who isn’t driving to your exacting standards.

Those four-letter words are best reserved for the ether.

Or you can use them in the form of creative expression under the protection of the First Amendment.

“Swearing is not just about expressing anger. It can also be an expression of creativity. Some swearing is simply creative,” Zrenchik said.

Zrenchik said cussing has numerous benefits when used appropriately, from using “f*ck” in protest chants to women’s groups calling themselves Stitch ’n B*tch.

“And the 1,000 different ways people turn swear words into funny, inspiring, and ingenious phrases is nothing short of a creative medium,” Zrenchik said.

The Art of Swearing

On our way to a pre-season Packer game this past summer, our family walked by a group of people on the same trek to the stadium as we were. As we passed the group, one person used the F-bomb multiple times loudly and as the main staple of his sentence. As a mom, I wanted to turn and tell the man there were kids present and he should modify his language. However my kids are in junior high and none of the words were new to them. It was my preference and my norms guiding what I thought he should do.

Now how does this story tie to swearing in the workplace? And as a disclaimer, before you get up in arms that I’m judging your right to swear, know my mom taught me it was okay to swear as long as you did it artfully. “Artfully?” you wonder. Yes, artfully.

Swearing artfully has to do with taking the moment and lightening the mood or making people laugh. For example, a colleague used to haul around this gigantic water mug and called it her BAM. Big Ass Mug. It made me laugh and every time I looked at her BAM, I smiled. I still do. It was unexpected and it served a purpose – an exaggerated verbal description.

Now, I steer clear of swearing both at home and in the workplace – unless it can be done artfully or with a clear purpose. There’s a reason I steer clear of cursing, it’s the same reason that made me want to tell the person we passed on the way into the game he should modify his language.

It’s a reason that has become less of a social norm today than it was 10 or 20 years ago. Twenty years ago, swearing and professionalism didn’t go together. Many of us understood this to be the social norm. That sentiment has changed across our business standards.

How has it changed and why has it changed? Interestingly, A Washington Post online article, “Why people go @*@&@(*&! in the office,” by Danielle Paquette, talks about how the image of swearing has changed and the generational norms associated with swearing.

Older generations were taught people who swore weren’t very professional. Swearing indicated you were uncouth and from a lower class of society. This image has flipped a bit. Some research shows swearing actually makes us more relatable to others and diminishes the sense of superiority and rank present in many organizations. It’s a way for the manager to connect to the employee if you will.

With those two opposing concepts (swearing is unprofessional and swearing makes me relatable) how do we bridge these two perspectives?

First, I think we need to know our audience and have the presence of mind to adapt effectively to the environment you are in. For me, I opt to not swear (although those who know me well know that “Ohsh” is a word in times of surprise or distress). Not swearing suits who I am, and it keeps me from accidentally offending someone in my sessions or audiences. For others of you, you may find you swear because it’s part of your social or organizational norm. You have to adapt, just as we do in any communication scenario.

The second way we can bridge this gap is to be aware curse words are defined differently by different people. My generation was taught the phrase, “that sucks,” was deeply offensive. For others, the phrase, “pissed off,” is offensive. We have to understand what we are walking into if we want to keep people engaged and positive, no matter what our environment.

Those are really the keys to being adaptive in all situations and exercising strong emotional intelligence, in the realm of cursing and the realm of communicating. Who is my audience? What do they expect? How can I adapt to meet their needs?

You get to own your language choices and the benefits and consequences of those choices. I’d encourage you to do so with wisdom and charm as you remember my mom’s mantra, “If you’re going to swear, do it artfully.”

Keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant, Sarah Gibson, helps organizations leverage the power of communication, teamwork and diversity to improve engagement and transform teams. To buy her book or inquire about her speaking programs, please visit www.sarahjgibson.com.

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https://sarahjgibson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oh-Shh.jpg 413 500 Sarah J Gibson https://sarahjgibson.com//wp-content/uploads/2016/04/logo-sarah-gibson-2.png Sarah J Gibson 2017-11-03 02:44:11 2021-02-01 08:28:57 The Art of Swearing

Love this! Know thy audience:-) Key to all situations is so true. Thanks for describing it so “artfully” Sarah.

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Now Don't Get Me Wrong

This highlights the subjective nature of cursing, as its impact and meaning can differ greatly depending on the context and the audience. There is an art to using curse words effectively. Cursing can be seen as a way to emphasize a point or to add emotional weight to a statement.

A (mostly) humorous look at life. No, really. I'm serious.

The Art of Cursing

I never swore until I was out of my teens. Pretty shocking, huh? Let’s just say I was a good girl with my verbiage for most of my early years. As a kid, I never had to suck on a bar of soap like my sister did after being busted for swearing. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy watching her do so. Actually, I shocked myself the first time the word shit slipped from my lips. It felt wrong while at the same time strangely satisfying.

Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not some potty-mouthed person who is addicted to swearing. Please! I’m a nice Catholic girl who attended Church twice a year (Christmas and Easter) and now only for weddings and funerals. Hey, I never said I was perfect, did I?

Having said that, there’s something satisfying about cursing. When someone cuts me off on the freeway, darn it! just doesn’t cut it, you know? In the privacy of my vehicle, where nobody can hear me, I say what I imagine a truck driver might exclaim under similar circumstances. I’m guessing it’s pretty much a regular occurrence in that occupation.

I bring this up because I read an article recently about people who curse. And guess what? A 2015 study found that cursing is a sign of intelligence. Well, as my dad used to say, can you beat that? They found that well-educated people with plenty of words at their disposal were better at coming up with curse words than those less verbally fluent. And you know how verbally fluent I am, right?

The study found that those who came up with the most words that start with F, A and S in one minute also produced the most swear words. (You can’t see me but I’m taking a bow.) And lest you think that’s all, they also discovered swearing can be associated with social intelligence. This just means knowing when and where it’s appropriate to swear, which is why I avoid it around my pets. They don’t particularly appreciate vulgarity, especially Jack.

Then there’s the 2017 study that says swearing may be a sign of honesty. Well, I’m nothing if not honest. Except when I’m fibbing. But fibbing doesn’t count, does it? Those in the study who lied less had higher levels of integrity overall. Please, you’re embarrassing me.

The next benefit of cussing: it improves pain tolerance. Well then, count me in. For instance, research found that bikers who cursed up a storm while pedaling against resistance had more power and strength than those who used neutral words. So next time I’m biking up Big Rock hill, I’ll be sure to use an expletive instead of shoot! and consequently forget I’m in complete agony.

And just so you know, the author of “Swearing is Good for You” says cussing is a sign of creativity. Well, I’m a writer, aren’t I? I think that about covers it.

Cursing also acts as a remote form of aggression while avoiding the repercussions of expressing your feelings up close and personal. I can attest to that since the majority of my swearing this past year occurred while either listening to or watching political programs. I tell ya, this remote form of aggression is raising my blood pressure.

Since naughty words are taboo, in a sense they become powerful. Letting an F-bomb fly every now and then isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It lets us vent, which helps us cope with particular situations. So go on! Express your intelligence, creativity and honesty by generating a colorful swearing vocabulary.

Trust me, it will leave you feeling pretty damn good.

In this sense, curse words can be used strategically to enhance communication and convey intensity or passion. When used sparingly and in the appropriate context, curse words can have a significant impact on the listener and help to convey complex emotions or frustrations. However, it is crucial to recognize the importance of using curse words responsibly and with awareness of the potential consequences. While cursing can be a form of self-expression, it can also harm relationships, offend others, or even lead to legal issues in certain situations. It is essential to be aware of cultural norms and the potential impact of cursing before using it. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the study of cursing, with linguists and psychologists exploring its cultural and psychological aspects. It is believed that cursing can serve as a form of emotional regulation, helping individuals to manage stress or pain. It can also act as a social bonding tool, as the use of certain curse words can create a sense of belonging or group identity. In conclusion, cursing is a complex and multifaceted aspect of human language and culture. While its use can be seen as an art form, it is crucial to exercise caution and consider the implications of cursing in different contexts. Understanding the cultural and psychological aspects of cursing can help individuals navigate its use effectively and responsibly..

Reviews for "Offensive or Artistic? Exploring the Boundaries of Censorship and Freedom of Speech"

1. John - 2/5 stars - I was really disappointed with "The art of cursing". The title made it sound like it would provide an interesting and intelligent discussion on the topic, but instead, it was just a collection of vulgar and crass language. I was hoping for a more thorough exploration of the cultural, historical, and psychological aspects of cursing, but this book fell short. It felt like the author was just trying to shock and offend rather than offer any valuable insights.

2. Sarah - 1/5 stars - I cannot believe I wasted my time reading "The art of cursing". It is nothing more than a collection of profanities without any depth or substance. The author seems to have a juvenile sense of humor, as the book is filled with crude and tasteless jokes. I was hoping for an intellectual examination of the power and significance of swearing, but this book is nothing more than mindless and offensive drivel.

3. Michael - 2/5 stars - I found "The art of cursing" to be incredibly juvenile and lacking any meaningful content. The author tries too hard to shock and provoke, with no regard for the intellectual value of the topic. It felt like a cheap attempt to be rebellious rather than a thoughtful exploration of the cultural and psychological aspects of cursing. I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for a serious examination of the subject matter.

4. Emily - 2/5 stars - "The art of cursing" was a disappointment for me. I was expecting a thought-provoking and insightful analysis of swearing, but instead, it was filled with offensive language and shock value. While the author touches on some interesting points, they are overshadowed by the crude and unnecessary content. I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for a mature and intellectual discussion on the topic.

The Psychology of Cursing: Why Swearing Can Be Cathartic