Is profanity in blog rants okay?

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profanity

My friend Gale Molinari at Galesmind.com posted this meme yesterday.

In general, I agree with the above sentiment. We all know people who cuss constantly and after awhile it can become annoying and offensive. People who pepper every sentence with the 7 verboten words not approved by the FCC sound, well, stupid, crude and boring.

However, I also think an occasional, well placed epithet can add impact and emotional urgency under certain circumstances. We’re all grownups here, and it’s not as if we haven’t all heard these words and know what they mean. They have stuck around the English language for so long for a good reason, and while their original references to various private parts, bodily functions or female dogs in heat have been diluted by their myriad other uses in recent times, if they’re not overused, they retain their power to drive your point home.

I don’t think there are too many people who won’t tolerate an occasional F-bomb, S-bomb or even the dreaded MF-bomb when it’s warranted.

For example, if you are writing a rant about how much you hate tailgaters (one of my biggest pet peeves), it’s much more attention grabbing to write, “I want to brake-check those fuckers. I hope they all rot in hell,” than “I want to brake-check those jerks. I hope they all fall off a cliff.” Or, “I was a complete bitch to him” has more emotional power than “I wasn’t very nice to him.”

profanity

Emotional impact what is what your rant is all about. You want your readers to feel your rage with you–you don’t want to be all polite and politically correct, a concept which is overrated as hell anyway. Because in real life, if you’re mad, really mad, you’re not going to be thinking about being polite. You are going to cuss like a drunk who just stepped on the edge of a rusty beer can.

That being said, if profanity is overused in a rant, the effect will be the opposite–then these words lose their emotional impact and you just sound like a fucking asshole or an uneducated, crude person no one wants to listen to–and your readers will go elsewhere to find another writer who doesn’t use the F-bomb as a verbal tick.

Another advantage swear words have is that they’re cathartic. It just FEELS a whole lot better to refer to that obnoxious tailgater, that psychopathic boss trying to gaslight you, or that inconsiderate person who blocks your way down the aisle at Walmart as a “fucking dick” than as a “big dumb heartless poopiehead.” You feel a little bit better, even if the words were only said safely behind the windshield of your car or muttered to yourself out of earshot.

calvin_hobbes

Swear words can be valuable tools in your writer’s toolbox, but like a high calorie, high-fat dessert, they can be bad for you if you overindulge. Use your best judgment, and of course, if using these words really makes you squirm or you really are morally opposed to them, then don’t use them.

If you’re a really good writer, there are other ways to give your rant emotional impact without using swear words. You can also use a series of keyboard symbols, such as g$#&*@&m f&%#@#g b$##&d!!

For the rest of us, profanity can be a handy shortcut to emphasize the impact of your anger, rage, shock or surprise. Just keep the kids away.

42 thoughts on “Is profanity in blog rants okay?”

  1. I won’t use it but there is a 3 letter text that is way over used. It begins with W&$ and it ends with $#F. I swear…@##%%&@@@#$% that the general population has become dumber then dumb. They lack creativity, and they mimic everyone. Talk about Narcissism in society and wearing a mask? I think that anyone that uses profanity consistent in ever other sentence doesn’t know who the heck they are. Oops, I used heck!! Lol

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  2. I’ll be a little arrogant here and say that I use curse words in English and Spanish on my blog. I don’t apologize for it either. And I would say I’m definitely not an idiot or crude or boring, and so far no one’s complained about my use of profanity but then again it’s on my about page as a warning 🙂

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    • I don’t have a problem with people who use swear words on their blogs, I do it all the time and don’t plan to stop either!
      Good idea to have a sort of warning or disclaimer though. I don’t but maybe I should have one. I don’t think most people mind my occasional spewage of naughty words though.

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    • I think it can be funny when used artfully. I had this friend named Lisa. She worked with me and she used nasty profanity. She used the F word and MF word in every other sentence. I use to go to her house and she would call her husband and her children all used profanity and they screamed at each other. When I was dating this guy she didn’t like,..she’d call me up and scream at me in the morning. Then it started to rub off. My friend Jenny noticed I was starting to use profanity sometimes when I spoke. Jenny was going to discuss it with me, but I recognized it and told her I felt my communication skills were sounding a little gross. Then one day Lisa left a message of profanity on my mothers phone addressed to me. That was when my mother stepped in and told me that was ridiculous. So I stopped being her friend. She’s still my Facebook friend. But too much profanity is annoying.

      That’s my opinion. There is a time and place for profanity. I think a blog is a good place for it.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. *warning, foul language*

    Golly gee whiz, gosh darn! I don’t use a lot profanity but sometimes you cannot help but dropping a “what the frack” comment (channeling my inner Battlestar Galactica nerd)!

    Liked by 5 people

  5. I don’t take offense to a lot of swearing. It can just be difficult to listen to someone use a curse word every three words when telling a story because it can be so fucking distracting. But as you are saying, LO, it can really drive a point home.

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  6. I feel the author’s intelligence no matter if they are cursing or not. I also feel the authenticity, driving a point home, it feels good. And anger is such a rich emotion, can’t really put it in a box and contain it and call it authentic. It can and does and should explode all over the place. I do believe in honoring Christian values for myself and others and would never swear in a person’s comments if they are not doing it themselves. I don’t think I even swear in comment sections.

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  7. personally, I try to not use much profanity in my blog, i seldom swear out here in the real world either, my wife never tolerated swearing, before I met her I could turn a sailor scarlet red with my use of the profane vocabulary , I had 18 years of not often cussing (at least not out loud), so it became a habit to substitute other words such as oh fish, fiddle faddle, sheep dip, etc. ( my wife was rather old fashioned) so unless I am really upset or angry I seldom swear and that carries over to my blog as well, but I am not put off by those that do use profanity, they’re just words.

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  8. I am a habitual potty mouth. I was not raised this way, I can’t blame my parents. I can’t believe that descriptive words; adverbs and adjectives can be offensive. If anyone wants to judge me as stupid because “a-hole” (uncensored, of course) is my favorite pronoun, so be it. I think judgement can be more offensive than cussing.

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    • I used to be a huge pottymouth, but after having kid learned to tone it down some. I never really stopped though. Hey, I’m originally a Jersey Girl and in Jersey everyone cusses like sailors.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. Used correctly, profanity is a call for emphasis in the middle of a sentence; like an exclamation at the end of one. It also stands out great within quotations as dialogue, but again, it still as more to do with emphasis. The problem is that used often it becomes rather redundant and many writers use it as a crutch. If it is true to the spirit of the subject, go nuts… if not, then avoid it.

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  13. This article hit home with me today, literally. The afternoon was hot and sunny as my friend Patti and I ventured out to this home called, The House of Profanity. It is a strange abandoned 18th Century estate. It was out in the wilderness and it was taken over by squatters. The walls are covered with profanity. It was the perfect Punk Rock setting for a Photo shoot and my friend who is a professional photographer, took photos for my upcoming song release of the song I wrote called, The Devil’s Son. Its about the cycle of Narcissistic abuse.

    It was a creepy adventure. My friend drove up this old dirt road to find this old pillars. We hiked though a trail. We went past some old barbed wire fence. And through and old trail. We hike up hills and down through the woods, and took rest periods. To tell you the truth I didn’t think we were going to find this place, and I didn’t want to get lost back there. I wouldn’t advise anyone to go back there at night, because the walls are covered in profanity and there is gang related graffiti coverimg several walls. As a matter of fact, the entire house inside and out is spray painted with some of the most vulger graffiti you could find. And there was broken glass, drug paraphernalia and there was a porn magazine on the 1st floor. The main estate has caved in. I’m not sure, but I have a good feeling that the fierce Hurricane Sandy took it down. We were in the guest house.

    After the photo shoot we headed back. I dragged my Gibson Less Paul guitar along with me through the entire trip. I feel down once through the trails. As dangerous as it was for two women to go on this journey out into the wilderness; I’d have to say that the house of Profanity was more exciting then the Narcissist, and thats probably because these graffiti artists were most likely a bunch of cluster B personality house squatters and vandalizers. The graffiti painted a clear picture of addicted behaviors and Malignant anger.

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    • The House of Profanity is located in the deep woods. It is in the wilderness of Allamachy, NJ.

      It is rumored through the analogy of the graffiti, that 4 anger male squatters painted the walls with Profanity. Part of the graffiti includes rap artist Emenim and he is one of the Graffiti artists on the wall.

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