On Cursing, Copy & the Classroom

I really enjoyed this colorful post from Magnus Shaw on Creativepool.com, regarding the use and power of swear words in copywriting. 

Is there a place for curse words in our copy? Will we see more of them in the years to come? I imagine we will, for better or worse, as standards change.

All this thinking about swear words reminded me of an academic experience I had when I was in college. I had a class in semantics and one day, the professor engaged us in a discussion of swear words. She explained how some words (curse words, particularly) have more power than other words, because of the association we bring to them. She then had us yell out all the possible swear words / curse words / dirty words we could think of, while she wrote them all on the blackboard. 

Imagine a class of students given free rein to yell out swear words in the classroom – and then having your teacher write them down for all to see – without anyone being sent to the principal's office or given detention. It was oddly cathartic – and an impressive way to make the point that words are merely words, a conglomeration of various letters that, in and of themselves, have no meaning, for good or bad. It's amazing how much meaning is attached to curse words, based on what we bring to them.

Personally, I rarely swear. I don't judge those who do, and I don't want a medal, a gold star, or a pat on the back for abstaining. The younger me avoided it for moral/religious reasons. The older (wiser?) me avoids it in accordance with the quote I once read somewhere (sorry, can't recall the author): 

"Swearing is a lazy man's way of being emphatic."

As writers, it seems like we (I) should be able to conjure up a better alternative, rather than taking the easy way out with a curse word.

But then again, maybe sometimes there's just no replacement for a good "#&@%"...