Why do we have words that we “aren’t supposed to say”? What decides what makes a swear word a bad word?
It can’t be meaning, because “poop” is fine and
“shit” is not. Or “sex” or “ruin” is fine, but “fuck” is not.
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Language is just sounds made by the throat and tongue. Words are just symbols on paper. There is no intrinsic value or offence to any combination of sounds or symbols their meaning is purely based on the context of their audience. Such a small difference between the words cunt and aunt for example but how offended you are by words usually correlates to either bigotry (you are uncomfortable of people who are different to you) or trauma (you’re afraid of the actions that often accompany certain words).
Swear words are most commonly polarising phrases that certain types of people (usually conservatives and religious types) have negative connotations towards (based on classist stereotypes and puritanical fear mongering) and don’t want to hear.
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