Extraneous Profanity in Writing: Why I Don't Share Awesome Articles

Ill placed profanity in writing is one of my greatest pet peeves. Particularly in writing such as blogs or article--items that I would want to share on facebook.

The English major in me can identify and appreciate the need for swearing in literature to make it genuine and earthy--not everyone speaks like a nun. In fact, my junior year of high school, I used a quotation from Death of a Salesman that had a swear word in it. I thought it was fitting. Of course, I used asterisks, which caused my Christian school teacher to chuckle and tell me to commit to my quotation. 

And I understand that it makes sense to insert profanity into some movies (not all, Hollywood). We were watching Zero Dark Thirty  (the movie about the take down of Osama Bin Laden) and my mother in law complained about the presence of some oh-so-charming swear words. 

My husband's response: " It's the military. I hear more swear words in the first half hour of work. They actually have barely any in here."

And he was right. Authenticity is incredibly important.

But, does every humor website or secular blogger need to insert nasty words and profanity into every paragraph. It annoys me that I can't share their awesome ideas because they had to insert awkward profanity in there. And it is awkward. Half formal writing (think: not school or business but still for a public audience) chock full with profanity sounds absurd. It's as if the author is trying to endear himself to the uneducated, swearing masses. 

It means I won't share a brilliant writer's thoughts, no matter how much I love them.  Some might argue that that is they talk. If that's the case, then my response is those people should think how the written swear word differs from the spoken swear word.  There's a lack of inflection, emotional, and context in writing that makes profanity pop up like glaring red signs. 

It's more than just the presence of profanity; it's how obviously present it is. An occasional well-placed swear word--while not my style--is somewhat understandable. But filling a word count with formerly unprintable words is the sign of a lazy writer, one who doesn't appreciate his audience enough to find a cleaner synonym, or reconfigure a sentence.

I won't lord over people who write with swear words, and proclaim myself a better writer. That's silly. But neither will I share their word, or recommend them to other people. Writing is an art form, and inserting extraneous profanity is an amateur's mistake.