WRITER’S LIFT
Adults Love a Good Insult
Even if it makes the children feel like shite
We all know the power of language and how it influences meaning.
Swear words are language too! Lots of meaning in them.
All the cool kids say fuck. Some say a lot worse.
I know some pretty awful words, all learned as a child from various relatives and absorbed as normal language to be repeated with glee in the playground and beyond.
This week’s shout-out is a story that explores this in more detail.
My Story of The Week
Writer: Lena Ann
Why: When I got old enough to understand the swear words the men in my family bandied about, the meanings sickened me.
How could they say that about mothers?
In all my life, I’ve never heard my mum swear once. She’s the sweetest thing.
Lena’s story took me back to how normalised that language was and how I simply accepted that was the usual way men talk about women, painting them with dirty words and nastiness.
It’s haunting me because the words sickened me but I didn’t know why. I was too young to understand they were reducing me too.
