Rising Usage of Profanity in Literature Suggests Increasing individualism #Science #Language

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Somewhere in our development we learn eyebrow language and this guy looks really pissed.


Comedian George Carlin's 1972 routine "the seven words you can never say on television" underlined his generation's rejection of the niceties and constraints of post-war American society. Seeing how the use of these swear words has changed over time captures the evolving American psyche, according to a new study by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean M. Twenge.

"The increases in swear words in books is part of a larger cultural trend toward individualism and free expression," said Twenge, also the author of the book, Generation Me.

Phys.org:  The rising usage of swear words in literature suggests that American society is becoming increasingly individualistic

Before you explain the language, be sure to understand it, dear.  It's correct to say the increases in swear words in books ARE part.  As to any increases in individuality, that's your case to convince and you haven't bloody done it yet.


For the study, Twenge, along with SDSU graduate student Hannah VanLandingham and University of Georgia psychologist W. Keith Campbell, analyzed the textual content from tens of thousands of books published between 1950 and 2008, and that have been catalogued by the Google Books database. Within this corpus, they searched for instances of Carlin's seven notorious words (which we won't print here but are noted in the study, or can be easily found online).

- PO

Google Books was their source for literature.  Well, ain't that previous when they equate William Shakespeare and Barbara Cartland as literary sources.  Tip:  Barbara Cartland wrote the cheesiest romance novels of all human history but probably didn't put any profanity in them although there was probably a whole lot of genteel fuckin'.

Do note the year since 1950 cuts out the Bard so that leaves Cartland standing for romance literature.  I cannot fucking wait for the rest of the science in this study of literature.


They found a steadily rising trend of those words appearing in the books, the team reports in the journal SAGE Open. In total, American authors used the seven risqué words 28 times more often in the mid-2000s than the early 1950s, the study notes.

"Forty-five years after George Carlin's routine, you can say those words on television—and in books," Twenge said.

- PO

Now that one is just barefaced bullshit since you cannot say the Seven Words on television, not then and not now.


The words are: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits.

WIKI:  Seven dirty words

If Stephen Colbert had to deliver anything dangerous of that nature, he would fall to the floor, quivering and dribbling on himself.  That language has never been generally acceptable on TV.

Note:  premium channels are excluded since they didn't exist until well after Carlin delivered the seven words and he was talking specifically about network television.


The findings suggest that these words have become much less taboo over time, she said. One interpretation is that people today value free expression more than they did several decades ago. That dovetails with previous research which has found that American society is becoming increasingly individualistic. That characteristic is especially prominent in young people, Twenge said.
"Millennials have a 'come as you are' philosophy, and this study shows one of the ways they got it: The culture has shifted toward more free self-expression," she said.

- PO

The findings don't suggest anything of the bloody sort.  At best there's an observation books from pop culture have more swearing in them now but that's thin like water on the Moon when the spread over which the books were written goes fifty-eight years and writers from the start might even in some rare cases still be writing now.  Any idea their observation indicates increased individuality is bloody rubbish since writers always push the fringe or they're shitty writers who will wind up as sycophantic pundits on some bullshit news show.

Then it jumps up to the Awakening of the Millennials.  Fucking what?  In fact, Millennials have awareness their parents didn't have and it's true in many ways but what sleight of bullshit scientific hand restricted this survey to Millennials.  The author has no fucking idea who wrote those books.


If you want to see individualism in Millennials, how about a game of Pokemon, huh?