My Opinionated Opinion on Profanity

WARNING: OPINIONS AHEAD

I was just reading a post by a writer I respect (largely for his professionalism, not because he writes in my genre - as far as I can tell, he doesn't) when I came across this thought:

If you have a problem with profanity, get over yourself or change your career. (Paraphrased.) Implication: you can't write (well, of course, because who would bother trying to write poorly?) without using profanity, either extensively or from time to time, like a strong seasoning.

Um. No.

First of all, I'm strongly Christian, and I've been raised not to use profanity or even the kinda-sorta-dirty-but-not-openly dirty words that refer to other words. I do use substitutes, such as drat and darn, but I don't consider this a good thing and I'm working to change that.

Secondly, I agree with this person: "Profanity is the effort of a feeble mind to express itself forcefully." - Unknown to Google.

Who wants to seem feeble-minded? You do? Alright, start using profanity in every sentence. If you don't have anything to say, spew out a few swear words. Everyone will think you're a crude, foul-mouthed fool who can't shut up, but hey, you'll be known as a forceful person! Hooray for you!

Profanity is not forceful to me. It is shocking, filthy, destructive - but not forceful. When I think of forceful, I think of a hammer. An engine. A river. Something with energy and strength as an inherent characteristic. In other words, a noun.

How many swear words are nouns? How many are USED as nouns? It's all verbs and adjectives. (PS Don't actually share your profane vocabulary with us. We don't need to know. Thank you.)

But apparently this man, who I do respect in other areas, thinks that writing needs some profanity. Most likely to add 'force' and 'strength' to the narrative.

This is completely unnecessary.

Take, for example, a short section from the beginning of the Pixar movie Up. It's a movie for children. No profanity. That means that there's nothing forceful, right?

But I consider the best and the most forceful part of the movie to be a small section that has no spoken narration or dialog. The story is moved entirely by the actions of two characters - newlyweds - and the music. It's similar to a silent Charlie Chaplin film. The audience is clearly shown two excited young people deeply in love, happily building a life together, who decide to have children. They're shown decorating the nursery. And then immediately from that bright, happy scene we slide to a dark hospital with the couple in a lit doctor's office. The music has changed. The woman is bent over, sobbing; her husband has his hand on her shoulder and his head is bowed. The doctor is holding a clipboard and is telling them something.

I've seen this same scene four or five times now, and it still moves me to tears.

No words saying that the baby is dead. No words saying they can't have children. No profanity saying they can eff each other forever, and it will still be hopeless.

Watch that opening scene and tell me it isn't forceful. Watch the whole movie and tell me that it doesn't touch on anything except happiness and light.

Maybe some people will rely on profanity to make their writing 'forceful'. I will not be one of them. I am still a learning writer; I know that I can improve greatly. But I will never use profanity as a prop to fake emotion and force when I can't convey it in other ways. Profanity dulls feeling. It is not forceful; it is poisonous. It will not be used in my writing. If my characters ever want to curse the situations I force them into, they can keep it to themselves.

Is that forceful enough for you?