Is it Manly to Swear?

What the fu** kind of question is that anyway. Of course its manly to swear. You just can’t swear in front of women or children. If you need to ask your friend, “What the fu** were you thinking when you…?”, there is no better way to phrase that sentence. However, you should not ask the produce clerk at the grocery store, “Where the fu** are the baby carrots?”…this would be improper use. Swear with your manly friends, and you can be a swearing gentleman…it’s that easy.

A man should swear with purpose. When one swears it should be with effect and not just a filler. These words hold more impact when used sparingly.

Andrew, et. al.,

Covering up a curse just makes you look like a jackass. It fails to convey the emotion being broadcast, and nobody past 6th grade should do it. I will make an exception for ‘Oh, crap’. If it’s good enough for Hellboy, it’s good enough for me.

I’d say that profanity in general is an art unto itself. If overdone it simply makes one look ignorant. We’ve all been stuck in line behind some piece of white trash who can’t utter a sentence without cursing. It dilutes the effect. I’ve been told that cursing is a weak mind’s way of appearing strong. In the case of those who overdo it, that’s definiely true.

I think swearing should be kept to a relative minimum. That way, when it comes out, the effect is truly impressive.

I dont think there is a problem with swearing. After all we were the ones who put this tabboo onto simple words. I do however have to say that there are some times where swearing is not appropiate. Is it manly however. I do not think so, how we use words do not make us any more manly than me eating a steak.

great question. I find that when I hear someone swearing, especially at work, I think to myself…”…what a complete and utter moron.”

I have however, been inspired by the use of this type of language.

(long story):

Years ago when I was in my early 20′s and still lived at my parents home, my father and I used to leave for work at the same time every morning. One particular morning I was just getting home from work from the previous day (I was a merchandising Manager at Toys R Us) as he was leaving (he was Design Supervisor at Ford Motor Co.).

He kind of laughed at me and asked if I went out and tied one on last night (read: was I drunk.)

I explained that as a store Manager it was my responsibility to stay at the store if there were issues that needed attending – no matter how late it was or how long I had already been working.

Then he asked me a direct and probing question “Are they paying you for your time?”

I told him that I was a salaried employee AND that I would also receive a bonus at years end.

Curious, he asked me how much of a bonus I expected at years end (1985).

I told him (as I kind of puffed up my chest – feeling rather manly) based on my last years bonus I could expect about $2,500 to $3,000 or around 15% of my salary.

That’s when he did it….

As he turned around shaking his head in disgust, he walked away and said “You must have SHIT for brains’.

My father knew that I aspired to be a draftsman, too; and he knew that because times had been extremely tough in the auto industry in the early 1980′s I had given up my passion; changing my Major from Engineering to Management. He had offered many times to “help” me get a job in the Design world, but I rebuffed him – wanting to make it on my own and not ride on his proverbial “coat-tails”.

My father also rarely swore.

So his use of one well timed swear word hit me like a ton of bricks….it also, changed my life.

I could not stop hearing his words in my head.

A few days later I asked him about his comment to which he helped me to understand his theory of “getting paid for the work you do, and getting paid fairly.”

After our discussion – and since the auto industry by that time had recovered – I allowed him to use his influence to “help” me land a job in the field that I truly loved.

If he had said “…you must have dung for brains…” or “…you must have doo doo for brains…” I doubt that the effect AND affect would not have been so great.

That was 24 years ago. I currently am a well respected (and still employed) Design Engineer.

So to the question at hand: Is Swearing manly? In the proper context, and more importantly, in reserved moderation – Yes!

There is a whole spectrum of swearing: at one end the easily-parodied “That effing effer won’t do eff-all, fer eff’sake.” This is funny at best (and at best it IS funny).
At the other end of the spectrum, in fact beyond the other end, is the swearing in the well-placed “shit for brains” story that JP told a couple of days ago. I say “beyond the other end” because if swearing is dramatic filler, this is not swearing. It’s a pretty creative metaphor (which we use so often that we don’t notice its metaphoric qualities), pointing out that someone’s mental powers are completely useless.
At the other end of the swearing spectrum is the “In emergency break glass” use, where one needs to convey inexpressible anger and frustration and uses profanity to do that because there are no available words – the point just short of wordless screaming. I took my then-young daughter to hear a talk about soldiers in Viet Nam (I didn’t think beforehand about what we were getting in for), and afterwards we had a long talk about how it’s okay to swear when things are just absolutely so bad that you don’t have any regular words to express yourself. I think in the context of war that that made an impression on her – she certainly didn’t swear at all in my presence when she was a kid, and she rarely does now.
I’m not sure what is meant by manly here, since women swear too, except that a mensch should choose all his (or her, the word “mensch” applies linguistically to women too) words so as really to communicate meaningfully and give up on choosing them in emergencies. In other words, we shouldn’t overuse “sweet” or “cool” either.

I’m in the ‘curse when it’s useful’ camp. There are occasions when swearing can be very effective. As was mentioned earlier when a friend does something so ridiculously stupid as to be immoral a “What the f*ck were you thinking?” Conveys the same message as “Sir, what you have done is ridiculously stupid as to be borderline immoral, I must inquire as to your thoughts that led to that action.” AND with emotion.

But the ‘cursing’ shows a lack of self control and maturity crowd make an excellent point. Which leads me to the question.

Must a man always be in control of his emotions? Or can they be used to add fuel to the fire as it were?

Hmmm…as a new reader, thanks to Google,haha…I find swearing rather effeminate. My high school friends who are rather effeminate by nature pepper their convos with every swearword imaginable and then some. I feel that speech is a noble thing and should be used to more lofty ends like the expression of praise, wisdom and every form of goodness. Salt and sweet water simply cannot flow from the same spring.