Pre-Adolescent Utilization of Colorful Metaphor

[Hobbs]

So, this thread got me to thinking. How old were you when you first started swearing/using foul language?

For me I think it was 2nd or 3rd grade...and I got caught in 4th when I pulled an "Oh Fu-uuuudge!" moment in front of my mom. I got smacked for that one

[HYHYBT]

I... never did really start. I still almost never use foul language unless quoting someone.

[AdminAssistant]

I never did a lot until high school, and even then, not much. I started cursing openly around my parents until I was in college. My parents who both cussed like sailors around my sister and me our entire lives. Mom actually had the audacity to be shocked. Sorry, you talk like that, your kids are going to talk like that.

[MaggieTheCat]

I started cursing at video games when I was in about 8th grade. And then only mild curses like "damn" and "hell." I didn't start using the nastier words or cursing more openly in public till late HS/early college.

[KnitShoni]

My grandmother taught me how to say "oh, shit" when I was around a year and a half. I didn't use much more than that until towards the end of high school. On those rare occasions, I got a "Watch your mouth" from Mom, but she couldn't really do much more than that since she can make a sailor blush.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

I started in Junior High and it was pretty mild until mid-late highschool when I started having a reason to shout "You fucking camping bitch!" at people in a video game.

[KnitShoni]

I started in Junior High and it was pretty mild until mid-late highschool when I started having a reason to shout "You fucking camping bitch!" at people in a video game.

Hubby plays MW2. I hear this on a daily basis.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Hubby plays MW2. I hear this on a daily basis.

It's totally not a legitimate strategy

[AdminAssistant]

I started having a reason to shout "You fucking camping bitch!" at people in a video game.

*sigh* My fiance is a hardcore WoW'er and has been for years. I play, too, but don't get as serious about it. Along with, "You fucking camping bitch!" I hear, "You better quit or I'm gonna bring my 80 out here!"

[Rageaholic]

I got my first "don't say bad words" talk when I was 3 or 4. I swore alot as a kid and continue to swear to this fucking day. It was around high school or college when my parents stopped getting on my case about using swear words.

I don't get it though. Why can adults swear and kids not swear? I've been told that I have to be a certain age to say "those words", but the way I see it, if they are bad words for children, aren't they bad words for adults too? And besides, they're only words.

[AdminAssistant]

I think it's a matter of control and filtering. As an adult, I know when it's okay to curse (with my friends, by myself, in a bar) and when it's not okay to curse (around little kids, in class, at work, in front of professors or other higher-ups). Kids don't have that filter. Since cursing is still not socially acceptable everywhere, it's better to just not have kids swear. Well, that and the fact that very young children don't really even know what the words mean.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I first learned the swear words in primary school, cuz I looked them up in the dictionary. I first started using them in secondary school, and then I learned how to swear in French, too. XD One of my fave songs now is this song that has the f word in it several times over. XD

However, I never swore in front of my mother; and I still don't. O.o

[Red Panda]

Swearing is a pretty terrible thing. It show no respect for yourself or those around you. If you're hurt or somebody punched you then its okay to swear but in mild cases you shouldn't. Its a sign of a small vocabulary not to mention many swear words are more derogatory to women then men.

[Hobbs]

How are they more derogatory to women? To paraphrase Gunny Hartman, "To me you are all equally worthless..!"*

*Note: I mean that, in the sense of the movie scene, if he were addressing the subject of gender inequality instead of racial bigotry.

[the_std]

Its a sign of a small vocabulary not to mention many swear words are more derogatory to women then men.

Ha. This is one of the most laughable things I've ever read. I'm constantly told that I use too many words that other people can't understand, and I can swear like a goddamn sailor. Sometimes, I just want to use offensive, jarring, sit-up-and-pay-attention words in my speech. It has nothing to do with how I talk when I'm not swearing.