Why do BBC, SKY and ITV apologise for ******* bad language

1966_and_all_that said:
Like I said above, time & place. The sensitivity is around the question, "would the person I'm talking to, or the environment I'm in, make it offensive to swear?" Nobody comes out of church, shakes hands with the vicar and says, "what a F***** great sermon you tw@!"
The football crowd swearing on live TV is an incidental hazard. people should be able to ake that or switch off if it offends. It's the personal usage in sensitive environments that has to be controlled.....I believe.
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I understand that there's a time and a place... I don't really think that is up for debate. I also understand that some people would be offended by it and that it wouldn't be inappropriate.... That's just the reality of how it is...What I'm getting at, is why? Why is it like that, why do we have these unwritten rules and why does it offend some people?

I suppose if swearing wasn't offensive, edgy or a bit of a taboo, then it wouldn't be swearing... So perhaps it's necessary that some people are offended and that we maintain the unwritten rules in order to retain the impact and effectiveness of swearing.
 
And here's an even weirder one... We actually have gradually more 'offensive' words for exactly the same thing...

Sex (totally inoffensive) Shag (moderately offensive) Fuck (Highly Offensive)

Fanny (Relatively Inoffensive) ** (quite offensive) C**t (too offensive to even write)

Buttocks - Bum - Arse

Poo - Crap - Shit


The list is endless and there's absolutely no logical reason whatsoever as to why one word is worse than another.... It's completely insane.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
And here's an even weirder one... We actually have gradually more 'offensive' words for exactly the same thing...

Sex (totally inoffensive) Shag (moderately offensive) Fuck (Highly Offensive)

Fanny (Relatively Inoffensive) ** (quite offensive) C**t (too offensive to even write)

Buttocks - Bum - Arse

Poo - Crap - Shit


The list is endless and there's absolutely no logical reason whatsoever as to why one word is worse than another.... It's completely insane.
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I think the traditional British Arse has recently been challenged heavily by the American Ass Bifster. Probably natural with huge amounts of American tv consumed, US culture exported etc etc but I prefer a nice traditional Arse myself all day long
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but who are these people that get offended by swearing and why do they get offended?

Swear words are obviously useful tools and form an integral part of our language and communication, so they have obviously evolved to serve a purpose.

Of course, if we just ‘accepted’ them and they were no longer a bit ‘taboo’ then their impact and effectiveness might be lost.

I wonder if it’s actually quite important that we protect these words by ensuring they retain their cutting edge and so those who do take offence are doing society a great service by keeping swear words alive and effective.

What do you think?
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The fact is most swear words can trace their etymology over 1,000 years to Norse and Anglo Saxon, which demonstrates they are a key part of our vocabulary, otherwise they would simply die out.
 
Wizaard said:
The fact is most swear words can trace their etymology over 1,000 years to Norse and Anglo Saxon, which demonstrates they are a key part of our vocabulary, otherwise they would simply die out.
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“If a Man is tired of Swearing, he is tired of Life“
 
Goforgoal said:
I think they, you and I are wasting our time in trying to maintain said modicum. Profanity, abuse and bad language, by both sexes, seems to be the norm nowadays. I’m beginning to think if expletives were removed from the language the majority of people would be speechless.😁
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Every cloud has a silver lining! 😆
 
Wizaard said:
The fact is most swear words can trace their etymology over 1,000 years to Norse and Anglo Saxon, which demonstrates they are a key part of our vocabulary, otherwise they would simply die out.
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It’s actually quite a fascinating subject, though apparently certain words have not always carried such weight, whilst others have lost some ooomph over time.

“Bloody” for example would have caused quite a stir in the early 1900’s, whereas the unmentionable ‘C’ word was incorporated in Shakespeare and had nowhere near the intensity attributed to it today.
 
1966_and_all_that said:
It's time and place though isn't it? A bloke will expect to F and Jeff in the pub after work with his mates but not on a night out with his wife. Everyone should be able to know when it's OK and when it isn't.
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They don't though, do they?
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
The problem is that your era had no real clue what ‘respect’ really means and your value systems and morality were all arse about tit.

On the one hand you’d happily engage in racism, homophobia and gender inequality. You condoned physical abuse of children as acceptable means of enforcing ‘good behaviour’ etc…

Yet you get all upset if someone swears or puts their elbows on the dinner table.

You couldn’t make that shit up 😂
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Speak for yourself, BFC.
 
Love how this has turned into an analysis and history of swearing.

Classic stuff lads. And who knows, maybe lasses.
 
Wait till we hear the announcer apologise for racism after saying, 'Leeds are in all white and the referee is in Black'. 🥺
 
Curryman said:
Wait till we hear the announcer apologise for racism after saying, 'Leeds are in all white and the referee is in Black'. 🥺
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He was in aquamarine on Saturday… I tried to start a chant of “who’s the Ba****d in the aquamarine”, but it didn’t seem to catch on.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
And here's an even weirder one... We actually have gradually more 'offensive' words for exactly the same thing...

Sex (totally inoffensive) Shag (moderately offensive) Fuck (Highly Offensive)

Fanny (Relatively Inoffensive) ** (quite offensive) C**t (too offensive to even write)

Buttocks - Bum - Arse

Poo - Crap - Shit


The list is endless and there's absolutely no logical reason whatsoever as to why one word is worse than another.... It's completely insane.
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You're now intellectualising the discussion x3. Snsitivities arounf this stuff exist because, over time, conventions have developed as to which expressions are considered crude and offensive and in which contexts. There is no logic to it. These things have developed because in human societies people intract all of the time in both intellectual and emotional ways.
 
1966_and_all_that said:
You're now intellectualising the discussion x3. Snsitivities arounf this stuff exist because, over time, conventions have developed as to which expressions are considered crude and offensive and in which contexts. There is no logic to it. These things have developed because in human societies people intract all of the time in both intellectual and emotional ways.
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Sorry…

I suppose I should just accept that the answer to the question “Why?”

Is “Because” or “It just is, so shut up asking stupid questions”

😂

The reality is we’re all a bit daft and just go along with this shit, without actually stopping to realise how ridiculous it all is.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
As Stephen Fry says


"Swearing is a really important part of one's life. It would be impossible to imagine going through life without swearing and without enjoying swearing... There used to be mad, silly, prissy people who used to say swearing was a sign of a poor vocabulary -such utter nonsense. The people I know who swear the most tend to have the widest vocabularies and the kind of person who says swearing is a sign of a poor vocabulary usually have a pretty poor vocabulary themselves... The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest or -is just a ** lunatic... I haven't met anybody who's truly shocked at swearing, really, they're only shocked on behalf of other people. Well, you know, that's preposterous... or they say 'it's not necessary'. As if that should stop one doing it! It's not necessary to have coloured socks, it's not necessary for this cushion to be here, but is anyone going to write in and say 'I was shocked to see that cushion there, it really wasn't necessary'? No, things not being necessary is what makes life interesting -the little extras in life."
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Is it just me who when reading Stephen Fry hear it in his voice in my head? 😀
 
It is learned behaviour. Of course it is. It's not just swearing though. Nudity in some places is completely normal but even the bastion of freedom that is Facebook can't deal with a bit of areola. Swearing, violence, beheadings...no problem. But a bit of nipple...whoa...

Interesting question - why are we offended. Societal. If it were to lose its impact it wouldn't be as useful. Next time you miss the nail and hammer your thumb try to use a non-offensive word and see how it makes you feel. It needs that edge to make it satisfying.

As people have said, time and place. And what makes us feel that way - who knows? How many people used to think it was funny hearing people swearing when they were kids, but then when they had kids of their own were shocked or offended? I don't pretend to understand why, but I do understand that some people are offended. And because of that I choose when and where.

Maybe it doesn't matter why, it just matters whether the user cares whether other people are offended by their actions..
 
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