Comments on: Offensive words and the Aussie way.

By: Mal

Mal — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 05:13:00 +0000

As one of the “Christian” bloggers in Aussie Blogs I don’t mind what language you use, as long as you are being real.

I can sometimes get a bit annoyed by people who deliberately swear just to gain a reaction - to me that in itself is discourteous, not the words themselves. Hey, who invented swear words anyway? Most of them are just an Anglo Saxon way of making an emphasis. The ones that are dangerous are the true curse words. By “curse” here I don’t mean “swear”, but the words that invoke illwill and harm on another person. They do have power to cause damage.

I know what you mean about a certain kind of Christian being either judgmental or easily offended. If you read any of my “Christian” blogs I think you’ll find that i’m more likely to to be disappointed with the behaviour of my fellow “believers” than anyone else.

In fact, some have so dishonoured the word “Christian” that I don’t call myself one normally, because I know it will usually be taken to mean something that I am not. I’d rather be a “follower of Jesus” like the first believers were. The same goes for the word “church”. My church is not an institution, but just a collection of people who like follow Jesus together, to paraphrase something I recently heard from Mike Frost.

By: River

River — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:20:00 +0000

Most swearing doesn’t bother me, although I don’t swear myself, but the “C” word really bothers me, I don’t know why.

By: Joh

Joh — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:12:00 +0000

I am not offended by any words. It is only the intention behind them, that can offend. I swear. I’m an Aussie. I don’t swear on my blog because my students sometimes read it and I’m pathetically trying to set an example.
I can relate to what you’ve written about being judged. It sucks.

By: Al

Al — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:42:00 +0000

jeez I must be immune, I never even noticed your cursing, LOL. Of course if you’ve seen pretty much any movie about Boston, directors would make you think we say “fuckin’” every other word, and while it’s not that bad, perhaps that’s why I don’t even register reading words like ‘the f word’ Anyways, interesting post re language and religion

By: alyndabear

alyndabear — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:45:00 +0000

Oops. I’m an Aussie. And a cursing one at that. And I don’t judge people on what they write, seeing the occasional swear word (typing that makes me feel twelve years old) doesn’t turn me off at all.

And the comment about being less of a writer for cussing? Bugger that.

I can see why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, so if there are bits that people find offensive, skim over them. But writing off the entire blog is a bit extreme, in my humble opinion.

By: amaras_mom

amaras_mom — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:43:00 +0000

While I try to keep my cursing under wraps for my daughter’s sake, I swear like a sailor. They are just words. You know how it goes, sticks and stones may break my bones…

Thanks for stopping by my blog Glad to have visited here!

By: Peter Haslam

Peter Haslam — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:06:00 +0000

It would depend on the content and sometimes swearing is appropriate. If readers don’t like it then what are you going to cut out next. Then it is not you and that would be a shame. I read blogs like I meet people some swear and some don’t as long as it is not a racial slur or the like I don’t care.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:31:00 +0000

Avoidance strategies like “f*ck”, “f—”, “the f word” are quite comical to me as they don’t hide anything from anyone, nor protect the eyes/ears of those who might be offended by them (if the potentially-offended cannot fill in the blanks, mentally and automatically, it’s unlikely to be an offensive word to them).

There’s an interesting (to me) series of posts on the Language Log which highlight the lengths to which some (mainly US) publications will go to avoid fuck, shit, twat and so on:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/003673.html

By: liv

liv — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 02:00:00 +0000

Can’t offend this yank potty mouth one bit. In fact, as I read one of of your (I say this lovingly) ultra long posts again, I was thinking that you overthink the fuck out of some things just like me. There. I just gave you a freebie.

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 01:17:00 +0000

I know what you mean about living with swearing and it becoming just a part of life, especially here in Australia. I hear swear words every day and now I don’t bat an eyelid when they are said. But that doesn’t mean I translate that onto my blog. Sometimes I’ll want to use a swear word but I’ll think about if someone is reading it at work or something, and if the word really is necessary. I’ve used “softer” swear words, like crap and shit, but only a few times. I guess I’m being over-cautious rather than not cautious enough.

That being said, I read plenty of blogs that use swear words. I don’t mind, I can handle it, I’m a big girl. I don’t think I would choose to read a blog regularly that swears non-stop, like a ridiculous amount - but that wouldn’t be so much because of the swear words, but rather I wouldn’t enjoy reading it, if that makes sense.

It’s a thought-provoking topic though!

Kate