The Curse of Public Swearing

You know how sometimes you come across someone who says (or writes) just what you've been thinking (or saying) but haven't been able to express. You think "Yes - that's it - what he's just said...that's what I want to say!"

This happens to me a huge amount. I guess that's one of the reasons I use a blog - I'm always finding stuff that's someone else has said so much better than I could ever articulate.

The latest occurrence was a few minutes ago when I read Ryan Gilbey's column in the Guardian online. I think he's got a great point:

Last Sunday, I took my nine-year-old daughter swimming. There was a towel hanging up at the poolside, bearing the letters "fcuk. "Isn't that a rude word?" she grinned. "Almost," I replied. After swimming, we passed a billboard advertising an exhibition by the photographer Rankin. The poster posed the rhetorical question: "Fancy a Quick Rank?" Classy.

There are worse things that can come out of our mouths than obscenities; I'd be more upset if one of my children used the word "gay" as a pejorative. What grates is the commercial potency that becomes attached to swear words and sexual innuendo through the determination of ad agencies to smuggle as much schoolyard naughtiness as possible past the Advertising Standards Authority. What must that say to children about the preoccupations of the adult world? Only that coarseness sells.

Well said.