I recall back in primary school, when I was maybe seven or eight years old, being told off by a teacher for using the adjective bloody to describe something. She said such a word was offensive to Christ who shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins. I didn't understand her reasoning, and still don't really, but I have never forgotten how upset she was. How genuinely offended she was.Several years ago, the Berri juice company had an advertisment on television which featured an angry boy mowing the lawn. Obviously upset at being forced to cut the grass for his parents when he really just wanted a drink of orange juice, he mowed the word shit into the lawn. Well, partially mowed it: just enough for the viewer to know what it said but not enough to have the whole word on the screen. I stopped drinking Berri products for a long time after I saw that ad.
Currently, Holden have a TV ad featuring a dad driving a new Colorado. It features a child emulating his father's use of the term 'bloody caravanners.'
Do we want our children to use swear words? Is it cute to hear a kid use the word bloody as an adjective to describe they don't like? Is it okay for an angry child to swear? Parents do it all the time, and some of them then reprimand their children for using the same language. If you don't care, then I'm wasting my breath in this blog, but I just don't like it. I think swearing has become much too acceptable dammit, and I think it's shame that less and less people are offended by bad language. What do you think?
Photo source:
http://pixgood.com/kids-swearing.html
