Professor Timothy Jay explores the forbidden language of profanity at Saint Leo
BY JORDAN COATES
Lions’ Pride Staff Writer
Old farts advisory: if you think “sucks” is a bad word, leave now.
On February 25 the boardroom of Saint Leo welcomed Professor Timothy Jay for his program on cursing in America. He has exercised all over North America and England and has more than 34 years of scholarship on swearing.
Professor Jay started the program by briefly describing his previous work and then moved into entertainment. He explained to the audience that he has observed more than 1,000 people swearing in public and then asked the audience to participate in an activity with him. He asked that everyone think of their favorite curse word and on the count of three say it out loud. Looking around the room the crowd was full of puzzled looks. Never the less, by the count of three, various curse words varying from the most vulgar to the fairly innocent were shouted out. This ended in an uproar of laughter.
The speaker questioned this laughter as he began his lecture. He commented that there is a folk knowledge of swearing. Every child learns it from someone or somewhere. He shared his own personal story.
“When I was five years old my uncle had a pharmacy. On the side of the wall it said ‘go to hell.’ My sister told me I should say that to grandma, so I did. My mom gasped and hit me upside the head, so I knew there was something wrong.”
He continued by explaining there are five usual questions when it comes to swearing. The first is: why do swear words exist? Swear words, to be clearer, are such words of obscenity, name calling, indecency, and profanity. These words come from ancient taboos. Although it is unclear what exactly is bad about these words, people have come up with moral reasons along the way. The second question is: where do these words come from? The answer is higher authorities. These authorities define what one should say and how one will be punished. His comment was, “if you don’t know who they are, go break a rule. You’ll find out.”
Jay also said that people learn taboos through caregivers. For example, he talked about the ever so popular strategy of soap in the mouth. Not only has he researched this mother friendly technique, but he has published work on it. He spoke about how caregivers use this strategy with the idea that when a child curses his or her mouth is dirty so they have to clean it out. Jay kept the lecture light hearted and humorous as he cracked jokes about the newest advanced mouth cleaning with liquid soap.
Listening to this lecture, one may have been surprised to find the variety of cursing found in America. He said in order to understand the taboos, one should listen to the language of a Turrets patient or listen to vile euphemisms. Another section of cursing is found in sex and religion. He proceeded to name the many different words associated with these sections, which was followed by the audiences shocked laughter. He went into a lengthier talk about sex and questioned why the idea that is hidden from the younger generation. He mentioned how in the DARE program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), its strategy is to expose children to the idea of drugs and alcohol in belief that they won’t engage in it. Jay questioned why the topic of sex was not similarly discussed with children and suggested that it was simply illogical to discuss one topic and not the other. If parents fear their children will hear about sex and be more tempted to have it, why is not the same for drugs?
The next category of cursing was scatological and disgusting references. Female hygiene fell in this category. He brought up the point however, that what is actually natural has been considered disgusting hygiene. The next few categories included animal names, ethnic, racist
and gender slurs, and incestual illusions. His next big category was substandard vulgar words and offensive slang. He said, however, that one has to question whether this language is offensive or a term of endearment. The context in which one speaks them and the relationship one is in all depends on how the word should be taken. With this, people must also keep in mind the range of curse words as they can go from very simple and innocent to vulgar and offensive. After speaking about the different kinds of cursing, he moved on to the third question: Why do people say swear words?
“It’s like the horn in your car,” he said.
Swearing is a propensity in each person just like a horn is built into a car. People are made to say them. Swearing is an emotion. Sometimes it expresses happiness, while other times frustration or excitement. While one is prone to say these words in general, they do choose the particular words they use. There is control over swearing. It is a strategic use to affect people, normally negatively. They can be used as literal or connotative. He commented that “two thirds of swearing is in expression of frustration and anger, or wishing harm on someone.”
While this is true, he also spoke about the very common “God bless you” that follows a sneeze. Yes, this is considered a swear word. This phrase came from the idea that when a person sneezes, they could die from sneezing out their soul. This saying is supposed to bless the person in order to save their soul.
According to Jay, however, “if you can sneeze out your soul, couldn’t you fart it out? So if you say God bless you for a sneeze, you better say it for a fart.”
There are other positive uses of swearing as well. There is, for example, storytelling, joking, irony, slang, etc. Whether cursing for a negative or positive reason, Jay claims humans are going to swear. Humans are evolved to swear; they are the only animals who can. It is a way to express anger symbolically at a distance. It takes the place of violence. While an animal or child would bite or scratch to show their anger, humans don’t need to do that because they can show anger through language. According to Jay “swearing is the most valued language of expressing, and we are utility, engineered like a box of tools.”
He used the example of Dick Cheney using cursing words and commented that he was his role model. Cheney had remarked after using swear words, “I was so angry; there was nothing else I could say. And I felt better after.”
The fourth and fifth questions came next: How often do people swear and who uses these words? He began ranting off a long list of names comprised of nearly every kind of person. He said there is a persistence of swearing. Kids start swearing when they learn to speak and it continues into senile decline. He joked about how an elderly person may not know who their family members are but would still know curse words.
Using data he has collected from the late ‘70s, he shared the most frequently used swear words. There are 70 or so words, and ten of those words are used eighty percent of the time. “Oh my God” is one of the ten most frequently used words and is used five times more frequently by women then men. While men don’t use this curse phrase as often, they use curse worse much more often and offensively.
As he closed his lecture, Jay spoke about media and corporate practice. He addressed how the media reflects on vulgar language as a campaign to protect children from words they already know. He also commented on how in football there is a $10,000 fine for excessive profanity, but questioned why there was no fine for violence.
Jay left the audience with better knowledge of cursing and the realization that it does and will exist for a long time to come.
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