Sitting at the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day, my sister blurted out the fateful words, "Oh crap." Much to my sister's dismay, my mother reprimanded her and suggested she use the word "crud" instead. My sister laughed and asked the difference, after which my mother went into a five-minute explanation describing the distinct difference between "crud" and "crap."
My sister refused to see the difference and argued that "crud" is a silly word and what she really wanted to say was "crap." I pointed out that both words are merely euphemisms for the same word. This didn't go over well with my mother either. First, she argued that "crud" was not a euphemism at all, and then she criticized me for trying to intellectualize the point.
Intellectualize cursing...hmmmm, sounds interesting. There is a lot of truth to that though, and indeed I think cursing can be intellectualized. For you see, curse words in and of themselves very rarely have negative meanings. We all know that ultimately we are calling someone a piece of poop, a female dog in heat or a donkey.
However, these monikers are not quite as harsh and often fail to get the true point across. That is because it is not the explicit meaning of the word that we are intending to use, but the connotations attached to such words.
Therefore, my sister and I had to continue to persuade my mother that for our generation, crap is a perfectly acceptable word, along with suck and piss. For my mom's generation, these words carry as much negativity as the very profanities they are trying to avoid. Curse words are very generational, and what is accepted today may be laughed upon in 30 years.
Admittedly, my mom's expressions of frustration are much more creative. Phrases such as, "Oh fiddlesticks," "Poodles" and the infamous "Goodnight," are common jargon I grew up hearing. Although my all-time favorite has to be when she calls someone a "toot."
In light of today's acceptance of vulgarity, all of these expressions seem rather childish or silly. Why is that? I don't really know why accepted expressions continue to slide down the spectrum toward vulgarity. Maybe it is just a lack of creativity. Ironically, my mom approved of the term "conniving whore" because it was much more creative than the "B-word."
I don't have any answers, but I don't look forward to the day my child laughs at me for saying "suck" because they are dropping f-bombs as no big deal.
--Jacqueline Vickery is a communications senior. Her column appears every other Wednesday. She can be reached at opinion@oudaily.com.hello there & you too
