Heard the title statement this week. Made me stop and think. Is profanity the language of the hurting?

I think a bare-foot collision with a coffee table in a dark room supports this theory...

Ahem. I don't usually cuss until I reach a point of extreme frustration, then the air turns blue... Not proud of it.

My grandmother, who raised me, had a mouth you wouldn't believe. She would excuse it by saying she grew up on a military base. I think she just used that as an excuse, frankly, the old hellraiser...

My opinion has always been that profanity is the native tongue of those with a very limited vocabulary.

I have always heard that, been taught that and believe it. But I also think the tunnel vision that often comes with rage or frustration triggers a subroutine that is pretty ugly, in some people.

But I think we may be talking about two different things. Some people use profanity in their everyday speech. That is coarse and unimaginative, for the most part. And rude/self centered. Then there is the profanity that is the result of hitting your thumb with a hammer sort of thing.

I don't think they come from the same place in the brain although the profane result may be similar.

Chronic profanity seems to me a method individuals use to exaggerate their own status within a group. Usually the group accepts profanity as normative at a minimum under certain circumstances.

I'm taking a couple of entry level art classes at the community college and the classes have a bit more males than females but it is close. Interesting, to me, the ones who seem to constantly toss in coarse profanity have been 2 - 3 young women. It is like they are trying to be tough or something. They dress well, look clean cut but have potty mouths. The guys have been gentlemen. I think the girls somehow think that makes them more interesting or something.

I'm taking a couple of entry level art classes at the community college and the classes have a bit more males than females but it is close. Interesting, to me, the ones who seem to constantly toss in coarse profanity have been 2 - 3 young women. It is like they are trying to be tough or something. They dress well, look clean cut but have potty mouths. The guys have been gentlemen. I think the girls somehow think that makes them more interesting or something.I have noticed the increased use of profanity in public by women and girls.

When I posted my comment I was thinking about my own experiences. In college I worked around construction workers who were all older. When I was with them I used profanity. Then I would drive down to OU and in that group I would use vocabulary I sometimes didn't even understand but no profanity unless I was with my drinking buddies.

The worst was when I attended National Guard drills once a month where there was nearly constant profanity and casual conversation that focused on sexual exploits, drinking, and noodling - pretty much in that order.

I think it was beyond my forties or maybe in my fifties where I became more unaffected by peer groups.

One thing I noticed when I went back east was MUCH less profanity out in public. Here in Oklahoma, I could hardly take my kids to ballgames or the like without exposing them to yahoos using gutter language. When you heard bad language in Virginia around kids, the men often would belatedly notice a child and apologize to the parents. Not all the time but they seemed much more aware that gutter language in public was not the thing to do. I haven't been out to ball games since we moved back home so I don't know if it has gotten any better.