Click here to learn about hosting packages, including a FREE plan. In the midst of mostly delightful action and dialogue involving an animated mouse being chased by real cats, one of the cats uttered a mild profanity. A few moments later, it happened again. After all, a recent study discovered an average of more than seven scenes using profanity and vulgarity in an average episode of broadcast and cable television shows. The English language is perfectly adequate to express such things as disappointment, anger, humor, and amazement without the use of profanity.
Language is a tool.
It exists to help us understand each other. But when an entire society begins to substitute a handful of words for the otherwise rich variety of the English language, we all lose something. When an award-winning screenplay repeats the same word nearly 150 times, as Good Will Hunting did, it lessens the impact not only of that word, but of all the other words that surround it. Profanity is a crutch. It is a shortcut that may aid the lazy, but in the long run hinders rather than aids intelligent communication.