More Than Mere Words

You will now be treated to an essay about an issue that bugs me.

I have been privy to several conversations about swearing, usually held between people who use curse words themselves. As one of these people who swears with a frequency that appalls even myself sometimes, I have taken part in some of these conversations. The discussion almost always turns to excuses for why swearing is okay, and how ridiculous are the people who are offended by swearing.

Eventually, someone says it: “It’s just words.”

Somehow, this is considered a good defense of curse words, and I object to it very strongly.

If these four-letter words are “just words,” then you can just as easily say that the bible, the Koran, the works of Shakespeare, Jane Austin, Wendell Berry, and any other book that has ever inspired or provoked a person to action or given hours of pleasure, are “just words.” I have been moved and inspired by words in books, poems, essays and plays so many times that I cannot accept the dismissal of curse words as “just words.”

Words are far more than a collection of letters given sound. Words are thoughts, feelings, ideas and intention put into a communicable form. The world can see what you look like, watch what you do, but no one can ever know what you think unless you use words to communicate. You can lie with words, and you can uncover deep truths. You can hurt someone deeply, and you can comfort them, with words. You can know or understand something within your mind or your body, but until you can put it into words it is trapped there. You communicate who you are through words. Are these words that you are “mere words?”

Words are powerful. Words are versatile. Words carry meaning. That meaning may change over time, but you cannot erase a word’s meaning simply by denying that it has one. Curse words are negative, often vulgar or violent words. Using these words offends some, and makes others uncomfortable. People have a right to feel this way, and we cannot discredit their emotions by refusing to admit that the words we use have meaning.

I am not arguing against swearing. I swear myself, frequently in my head and aloud when I am angry, frustrated, or, most often, when I hurt myself. Cursing really does not offend me in these contexts. (Don’t get me started on the people who swear every other word. Go read a book, expand your vocabulary, and develop some freakin creativity.) So go ahead and swear. But understand that these words carry meaning, and may offend. If you really feel the need to justify the way you talk, do not say that curse words are “just words.” As a person whose innermost self is primarily communicated through words, who loves to read and daily finds inspiration in the words of others and in the words that I myself write, I do not want to become “just a person.”