A couple of days ago I received an email about one of my articles that is on my site, well a series of them called customers suck. The email told me that “aside from the profanity” they enjoyed the articles. My thoughts on that teetered back and forth. I get a lot of positive and negative comments about my site, whether by email or comments on the blog or guestbook entries. One thing I don’t do is edit or delete them if I don’t agree or like them. For whatever reason, I throw my thoughts out there for everyone to see and I know that not everyone is going to agree with my thought patterns which is great as far as I’m concerned. However, I don’t ever recall someone telling me they like what I wrote but didn’t like the fact that I used profanity. It got me to start thinking about what is profanity anyway. I decided I would look it up online to make sure so I turned to a trusty dictionary. Not a paper dictionary, this is 2009 and even Merriam-Webster is online. Here is what I found out:
Main Entry: pro•fan•i•ty
Pronunciation:prō-ˈfa-nə-tē, prə-
1 a: the quality or state of being profane b: the use of profane language
2 a: profane language b: an utterance of profane language
Well that was rather helpful wasn’t it? Now I have to go reference profane.
Main Entry: pro•fane
Pronunciation:prō-ˈfān, prə-
1 : to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt : desecrate
2 : to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use
Well thank you online dictionary, now I know and knowing is half the battle. Ok then, profanity is profane language; well wait, that’s rather confusing isn’t it? You see, I never understood and still don’t understand why certain words are considered bad. It is one of those things that never made sense to me, someone heard a word and said; God doesn’t like that word. I’m guessing it was religion based at its earliest conception because most things that were considered bad were blamed on God to scare people into not doing them. In case this is the only thing you’ve ever read of mine, you should know I’m not scared to use so called “dirty words” but you should also know that I don’t always use them or even rely on them to make my point, however I do occasionally use them to exemplify points. In fact it may shock you that even I for whatever reasoning am not a huge fan of people cussing and swearing; but I think there are more profane things out there than words.
A good example would be this, which is more profane? You’re at the store and a woman and her 8 year old are shopping, the 8 year old drops a carton of eggs on the floor and instantly lets a cuss word fly out. Is that horrible, I don’t’ think so. If the child launches into a two minute tirade of words then yes, but one quick instinct word I don’t think would be profane or would stop the world from turning. Scenario two is much more profane in my eyes, and one as a former retail employee is one I’ve seen on many occasions. The same mom and her 8 year old are shopping and the 8 year old wants something and is told they can’t have it. Well this sets off the child and now they are, without using any swear words, telling their mother how stupid she is and how she doesn’t love them and basically belittling her in front of an entire store. That utter disrespect is what is profane to me.
That being said, I don’t want to hear your child swearing. Like I said, I swear my fair share but as a child I was disciplined and taught not to swear. So no, my argument isn’t that kids swearing isn’t profane, but that it isn’t the worst thing. Don’t get me wrong here; I don’t want Sesame Street being sponsored by the F word anytime in the future either. I also don’t want to hear newscasters swearing either; although these days I don’t think you could lessen the integrity of the news any further.
So what is profane? Anything that you don’t agree with or things that personally offend you. Is that a question or a statement? I’ll leave that up to the reader, as I have other things I need to do. One thing I think is profane is that a blog about what is profane didn’t contain any profanity.
Dave, that was an interesting e-mail from the reader. But if they were on your blog and took the time to send you a message, they should realize that a blog is your opinion. You can talk fluffy or swear. And they can choose to read it or not read it. LOL. I liked your story but I didn’t care for the profanity. You should have responded with, “F*ck You!” OK, that might have been a little much, but you see where I’m going with that. But hey, you did your job. A good blog is judged by comments vs. content vs. visitors. If they were compelled to e-mail you, one way or the other, you did your job. I love your blog. Great post.
Dave, that was an interesting e-mail from the reader. But if they were on your blog and took the time to send you a message, they should realize that a blog is your opinion. You can talk fluffy or swear. And they can choose to read it or not read it. LOL. I liked your story but I didn’t care for the profanity. You should have responded with, “F*ck You!” OK, that might have been a little much, but you see where I’m going with that. But hey, you did your job. A good blog is judged by comments vs. content vs. visitors. If they were compelled to e-mail you, one way or the other, you did your job. I love your blog. Great post.