Swearing Women, cont.
February 2, 2015
IN the latest entry about women who use profanities and believe it’s good, partly because men do it, Sven writes:
Abigail is essentially denying that separate roles apply to men and women, and that good manners are important. In a nutshell, “If it feels good, do it.”
Women have traditionally been keepers of the home. The home is a place of refuge, a place of safety and comfort, separate from a rough, cruel world. Men ventured out to make a living in that world to preserve the home and hearth. How many men throughout history have felt the soreness and care of a long day at a mine or field or mill melt away as they returned to a loving wife and well-kept house? Introducing swearing into a home pollutes it with the roughness of the outside, which is why a man who swears like a pirate captain’s parrot would hang the curses up outside when he came back to his women folk. It didn’t belong in the house, just like his dirty boots.
On the deck of a ship and on the floor of an oil rig, the Anglo Saxon word that begins with “F” can be like breathing. I’m not saying it is right, but it is appropriate to the context. Women who swear constantly are degrading themselves and their role as women.
