I just got to thinking the other day about 'swearing.' As in 'saying what our society thinks are bad words, when under pressure.' Why do we do it? (I'm not against it, by the way—I do it myself—but just wondering why.) It's almost as if the words come unbidden. You drop a brick on your toe. What happens? You scream 'SHIT!' or 'FUCK!' even if you don't normally pepper your conversation with these words. Why? Where does that come from? It's not as if you have time to think about it. It's just automatic in many people. Funny.
Pain is a complex thing . It is not just your nerve endings picking up a signal. It is connected to your emotional state , among other things . So , when you kick the door with your foot by accident , and shout somethings obscene. This will alter your your emotional state , and you will not feel as much pain.
I kicked the leg of a table one morning, and hopped about seething, “Shiit!! Aw, you bastard!!!” I’m not sure it hurt any less. It certainly didn’t stop my longest toe ending up looking like a baboon’s arse.
You're right, but it's quite funny, really. Why not shout 'RABBIT' or 'GOOSEBERRY PIE'? Why some obscene or blasphemous outburst? I think we all do it, even folk who would usually not 'swear.' That's what makes it funny. It's like we do it without thinking about it. Apparently we need an extreme statement to counteract the extreme pain? And, as @OurJud pointed out, it maybe doesn't even work.
We associate those words with anger. When we're stressed, our minds need a release mechanism, and yelling or shouting acts as that release - hence we "vent frustration". Ultimately, that's why, but conditioning has a lot to do with it as well. Japanese has almost no "swear" words, at least none that I'm aware of. You're rude by changing the form of address or adding suffixes to people's names. Therefore, it's not a language that lends itself to screaming an obscenity. The Japanese are really, really bad at shouting, although of course they do do it. While we tend to end our shouts on a short, sharp note, the Japanese kind of just trail off. It's similar in Thailand. Although people shout more there, when frustrated, they swear without raising their voices that much. There are also substitutes for obscenities and blasphemy. "Jeeze" for "Jesus", for example. You can condition yourself to use them instead, although if you end up shouting "fudge" when you're angry, you might just end up looking like a bit of a tit.
Fight or flight. Swearing and shouting implies anger. Anger releases adrenaline, which affects pain. Maybe.
So, I wasn't raised to swear/curse. It hasn't been in my vocab. my parents didnt curse (they do now, though, and its so weird to hear coming out of their mouths because growing up, they never said those words). my brother and sister curse. for my brother it has become his vocabulary and its strange because... how? part of me thinks its his act of rebellion..."im an adult, i dont have to censor my words. fuck you all!" and my sister has always followed my brother and emulated him, so she curses now. My grandfather's idea of cursing" was making up swear words.... bump the side of the table? "CHEESE AND CRACKERS!" someone scared or surprised him? "GREAT GOOGA MOOGA!!" so.... as an adult, my habit is to make up swear words or just say the letters when angered or surprised or stressed. "oh ef!" "what the fudge!?" "Frick you!" "FISH AND CHIPS!" "you Bee" "EGGS!" of course, that doesnt stop me from WRITING the actually words in my stories or text sometimes. I will occasionally let the words fly when i'm making a joke, but other than that... i cant bring myself to say the words in anger or seriously. it doesnt sound right coming out of my mouth. I dont mind anyone else swearing (except my parents... that will forever be weird to me). Doesnt sound "wrong" to me when other people swear/curse so i'm unbothered.
If you can find a copy, there is a BBC show with Stephen Fry called "Planet Word." In one episode he enlists Brian Blessed to test the power of profanity. They find that if you swear rarely, doing so can increase your tolerance to pain. The test was run by each of them submerging their arms in a bath of ice water and seeing how long they could keep them there. The first round (going from memory because I can't find the episode) they aren't allowed to use profanity and can keep their arms submerged for a relatively short time. The second round they're instructed to swear. Fry manages to significantly increase his tolerance, while the notably foul-mouthed Mr. Blessed experiences only a slight benefit. Fucked if I know how this could be relevant to my shitty little life though.
It is not the words that ease the pain but the shift in emotion , shouting rabbit doesn't do much for me .
Pain = "Fuck!" Surprise = "Oh tits!" Everything else = "Shitballs, fucknut, bastard bitch, c*** (that one's really bad here, so...), etc, etc."
That's exactly what I was hoping to learn on this thread. Does this work? And does it work for everybody? Apparently it works best for those who swear least? So in the depths of their mind, these normally unused words just burst out?
I think it's the association that we're conditioned with at a young age. Mom/dad/sibling/other kids tend to swear when they're angry/aggressive. I personally come up inhuman sounds or phrases like fudgeeos and whipped cream.
So it's the word, not the shout. I can believe it. I've been known to mutter fuckitfuckit when something small isn't going right ...no intention of anybody else hearing it.
If this were true, the method would have meant my mum and dad would feel no pain at all. My go-to for frustration is “For fuck’s sake!” I’m saying this a lot just lately, when practicing my guitar.
I had a good friend years ago, who was German. He was one of a large group of friends who hung out with me and my roommate, and he used to come around our house a lot. My roommate, Mark, was a superb guitarist, and I remember the German sitting down with Mark's guitar to practice his own playing a bit. He was just learning, so what was coming out was: "twang twang-Scheisse! (German for Shit!) twang twang-Scheisse! twang twang-Scheisse!" My roommate walked past, and said, "Is that the Scheisser Waltz?" Still makes me laugh, when I think about it. Thanks for reminding me.
The next time I trip up whilst walking along the street, some people are going to look at me VERY strangely.
My go too is either Sh** or SOB. Trying to work the F out of most of my vocab, cause it can be an invasive one. Nearly broke my left pinky toe on one of the benches around the dining room table, and in that instance it did no good and it was sore for like a week.
First time I saw this I was in bits. I feel his frustration but thankfully don’t allow it to manifest itself like this. Nor does it fill me with hope because it makes me wonder if some people just don’t have what it takes... and he’s further along than me!
I used to have a manger who grew up as a pastor's daughter, and always had to be the 'good girl'. When she wanted to cuss she'd say things like "Aw, Fiddlesticks!" or "Gosh Darnit!" I once informed her that I think she was using words with the same initials as the ones she actually wanted to say. Fiddlesticks was a substitute for Fuck, and Gosh Darn it for God D*mn it (don't feel quite right writing that one out). She just smiled, making it clear she was already well aware of it. Shucks would be a censored version of Shit, etc.
Shizzle. Fucklesticks. Mother Fuckleberry. Mother Bitch. Suck my clock. CockleDeeFuck. MotherFiretrucker. Staples for my brother and high school friends.
