S04E75 Why the %&#!?!* Is Everybody Cursing?

Ever notice how every other word in your favorite TV show seems to be beeped out, or how your go-to playlist is peppered with more F-bombs than a Quentin Tarantino flick? We're peeling back the curtain to reveal the sweeping escalation of swear words in pop culture, and the implications it has on our daily banter – particularly with the impressionable ears of the next generation tuning in.

In an era where four-letter words are less shocking and more like commas, we dissect the allure of the forbidden lexicon and its psychological tug-of-war. Let's lay it all out there - the good, the bad, and the four-lettered - and how shifting societal norms have redrawn the lines of what's considered taboo.

Turning the page, let's chat about the redemptive success story of the College Football National Champions, the University of Michigan Wolverines, who went 2-4 in just 4 years ago, and completed an amazing turnaround with a 15-0 perfect season against Ohio State, Alabama, and Washington. Coach Harbaugh focused on three things in this amazing turnaround, which we will cover.

We encourage you to jump into the fray, share your triumphs, and keep the conversation going by connecting with us on Instagram at Botox and Burpees podcast, or sounding off in the comments on YouTube. Here's to our collective grit – and remember, Let's Go Blue!

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S04E75 Why the %&#!?!* Is Everybody Cursing?

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00]

Sam Rhee: Does it sound to you like bad words are coming from everywhere? I know it seems that way to me. Maybe you agree with me that cursing seems way more prevalent on TV shows, movies, music, and mainstream media. My children and their friends who are teenagers definitely let fly with the curse words much more than when I was the same age.

Or at least, that's the way I remember it. Just overhearing my son play NBA 2K online with his friends in the basement and the blue words just come pouring out. And the popular music out there is just rife with lyrics that are extremely rough to say the least. When I was a teenager, the most racy songs were stuff like Madonna's Like a Virgin and the self appointed censorship czar, Tipper Gore, held Senate hearings to try to stamp out the outrageous filth in rock music.

And if you want a quick laugh, go back on YouTube and watch Dee Snider from [00:01:00] Twisted Sister testify in front of Congress in full rock costume. Makeup, huge hair, and all. Lately, I've been wondering if this was just my perception, now being an out of date adult, or if it was really that cursing is way more common now than it was in the past.

And as a parent, I wanted to know, what is the effect of the use of profanity on kids? Is there some potential problem with younger people letting the F word fly around all over the place? Personally, I don't allow us as a family to curse when we are with each other, but I do allow my kids to curse when they're with their friends, and I pray silently that they don't curse in front of teachers or adults.

And myself, I am slightly ashamed to admit it, but I do curse, and I do enjoy it. I curse pretty freely with my co workers when I'm working out at the gym and with my close friends. I try never to curse in front of patients, with people whom I don't know well, or when I'm coaching. But, I'm not perfect.

Is this [00:02:00] world descending into a blitzkrieg of F bombs as a recent Wall Street Journal article noted? And what are the consequences if we are? Let's talk about the F bomb, the S word, and all the other naughty, naughty words out there.

First of all, if you think that mainstream media has gone all potty mouth, you are absolutely correct.

Wall Street Journal writer Beth DeCarlo has studied the rise of profanity in movies and television showing that when following 60,000 popular movies and TV shows over time, the use of the F-bomb went from 511 times in 1985 to 22,177 times through early November, 2023.

The S word was also used 484 times in 1985 to up to 10,864 times through this same period. Of course, there is much [00:03:00] more programming available now than there was 40 years ago, and the FCC does not regulate streaming services like Netflix the way it does for broadcast television.

But even accounting for that, it's pretty clear that profanity is way on the rise. The statistics in the article show that profanity in media spiked starting in the early 2000s and continues to stay at high levels of usage. The most common curse word in shows and movies is the F word, followed by the S word.

Interestingly, the words hell and damn, which barely count as curse words these days in my mind, were even less commonly used than the F and S word. But the least common mainstream curse word is the B word. Not sure why they don't call people the word that rhymes with witch very often on shows. But I guess I'll ask a Hollywood writer that if I ever meet one.

The other question I would ask a Hollywood writer is why do they think profanity is so much more common [00:04:00] on shows and movies? My guess would be is that they would say the writing reflects culture as a whole, where we as a people are cursing more and where profanity is just more acceptable than it used to be.

And the writers may be right to point the fingers back at us as a society. We are definitely cursing more as a people. A recent study from The Guardian from writer Mark Brown found in a survey of a thousand people that 60 percent of people use profanity such as the F word in their daily lives.

A third of the people surveyed said they use profanity more now than they did five years ago. 46 percent of the Gen Zers said they swear regularly versus 12 percent over the age of 55. So this data reflects what I see in my life, and probably what you might see in your life, which is that younger adults tend to swear more, but that a majority of people around me, and including me, regularly swear as well.

[00:05:00] So why do we swear in the first place? What is so appealing or tempting about using curse words? The peculiar thing about profanity is that swear words are only bad because we give those words power by telling our children they are bad.

A New York Times article by Kristen Wong quotes Benjamin Bergen, a researcher on profanity, who says that the paradox of foul language is that when we try to stop our kids from saying certain words, that act creates the cultural concept that that word is forbidden and wrong. The very act of censoring a word creates a profanity.

People growing up in different cultures have different swear words. Have you ever tried to swear in a second language? Those words just don't have the same power or impact as swear words that you learned growing up in your first language. Plus, generationally, swear words change.

The words knave, harlot, [00:06:00] bugger, and twat were considered awful a couple hundred years ago. Even gadzooks was one something you didn't use in polite company back in the day. So why do human beings swear in the first place? Well, researchers have shown that there are actually real mental effects when we curse. In a very interesting experiment, psychologist Dr. Richard Stevens had subjects make up a list of their swear words, and then a list of neutral words, such as wood or chair.

And then the subject had to submerge their hand in ice water for as long as possible, either repeating their swear words or their neutral words. And the participants who swore were able to keep their hands in the ice water almost 50 percent longer than when they used their neutral words.

Plus, the subject reported that the pain from the ice water was less intense when they were swearing. And this correlates with real life, right? How many people curse when they accidentally stub their toe? [00:07:00] I know that's an instant, automatic response for me. So what is it about swearing that makes people withstand pain better?

Researchers believe that swearing provides an adrenaline kick to the system. Cursing invokes a fight or flight response, which results in a stress induced pain tolerance. That same adrenaline kick from cursing also seems to increase strength.

The same researcher tested bicycling and hand grip strength while cursing or using neutral words, and in both cases swearing increased athletic performance.

As someone who does swear, the last thing I would like to mention about profanity is that when we break out the curse words, we might actually be more honest when we swear. A study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science concluded, quote, profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level.

Not only that, but there's also research showing that people [00:08:00] perceive those who use profanity as being more honest. So why is that? It's because the reasoning goes that liars have to take more time to think, either to make up a lie, or to remember a lie, or to consider the truth that they're looking to avoid.

People who tell the truth usually get to the point quickly, and they may speak more impulsively without filters, which may mean not having to self censor profanity. Using swear words often shows an emotional state, which is often considered more truthful than trying to hide your emotions. Plus, if you're amongst those who you feel comfortable using profanity, you typically demonstrate that you trust these people that you can be informal and relaxed around them.

So in summary, we are definitely swearing more in society, the media reflects that with the increased use of profanity in shows, movies, and music, the taboo of curse words is something that we make up ourselves as a cultural concept, and it almost [00:09:00] seems that humans have profanity built into the very concept of language.

While there are some possible benefits to using profanity, mostly taking advantage of the emotional charge that cursing provides, like anything, the constant use of swear words probably ends up desensitizing us, and then that makes the taboo nature of profanity less useful all around.

I admit I enjoy cursing. It feels freeing to me in stressful situations and amongst friends. It feels like I'm kicking up my heels on the sofa when I can curse. My staff in the office blessedly tolerate my cursing, and generally I am careful to keep it bottled up otherwise, in situations where it is inappropriate.

I guess I am old fashioned in the sense that I keep a family rule that we don't curse around each other, which I guess helps to keep swear words freshly forbidden for my kids.

I disagree with some adults who say that [00:10:00] cursing is rude. and low class, and that only the feeble minded and lazy use excessive profanity. I also disagree that the use of profanity reflects a moral decline in our society.

Profanity is simply words. We choose as a society which words shock and offend, and those words change over time. Many of these holier than thou naysayers out there probably forgot that back in the golden years of no cursing in public, the words such as coloreds, Chinaman, Micks, Krauts, Pollocks, and other even worse racial or cultural slurs were perfectly acceptable back in the day, whereas someone using the word F would be looked at in horror.

But, after thinking about profanity for this episode, one thing I will change for myself is to try to refrain from religious profanity, such as using Christ or Jesus Christ as a swear term, or anything religious in nature. I do understand how important those terms are to many, [00:11:00] and being respectful to others in regards to their religion is important to me.

Similarly, one of the biggest issues I still have, and may want to address in a future podcast, is the tremendous amount of casual misogyny heard a lot in popular hip hop.

Popular with many young adults, including my son. I have to admit, even my own gym music has a fair number of songs which are not so uplifting to the fairer sex, unless telling a hoe to shake that ass is uplifting.

It's not uncommon for these kids to attend an orientation seminar in school where they talk about the use of appropriate language and discuss anti bullying measures, but then they turn up their AirPods and listen to rappers talking about B words who can't be trusted and are baby mamas and gold diggers.

If we're going to talk about profanity, I would rather let the F and S words go and get after the concepts and words that still punch down on certain groups.

So what are your thoughts about profanity? Do you swear like the blue [00:12:00] blazes? Or are you the type to find it rude and offensive? Let me know.

My thankful for this episode are the College Football National Champions, the University of Michigan Wolverines, or as Buckeye fans might call them, That Team Up North.

They recently completed a perfect 15-0 season, defeating Ohio State in their last game of the season for the third time in a row, before beating both Alabama and Washington in the college football playoffs to claim their title. For me, the championship itself is less meaningful than the redemptive process it took for Coach Jim Harbaugh and his team to achieve this success.

People may not remember, but 2020 was a low point for Michigan football. Coach Harbaugh in his sixth season at Michigan went 2-4 in a COVID shortened season. They didn't even play Ohio State that year, who would have killed them and whom they hadn't beaten since 2011. [00:13:00] The university insisted that if Coach Harbaugh wanted to remain, he would have to take a pay cut from $8 million to $4 million. And I know college athletics money is crazy, but that's another topic.

Coach Harbaugh, who had tremendous success in the NFL could have left, yet, he decided to stay and he focused on three things. Number one, building team culture, number two, player development, and number three, finding others to help him succeed.

The culture was changed and built by allowing players to lead from the bottom up, instead of forcing that culture from top down, as he had before. Then, he took his 3 star recruits, and turned them into 4 and 5 star players with improved strength and conditioning, which was very different from the approach of the Georgias, Alabamas and Ohio states of the world who were already chock full of superstar recruits.[00:14:00]

And finally, with the help of his brother, John Harbaugh, coach of the NFL Baltimore Ravens, he brought in young, talented coordinators who changed both the offense and defense to shape a team that was powerful enough to go toe to toe with the best and win. All of this started from the depth of a 2-4 season four years ago.

It's such a powerful life lesson. Don't give up, even when faced with crushing failure. Be creative and change your approach, but stick to your core principles. Don't be afraid to seek support and help. And above all, do it by building yourself and others up. Sometimes you might end up hoisting the trophy yourself.

Thank you. And Let's Go Blue!

Thanks again for listening. And please, as always, DM me @BotoxAndBurpeesPodcast on Instagram or leave a comment at youtube.com/@BotoxAndBurpees Thank you.[00:15:00]