To curse or not to curse....

[curiouscrow]

that, apparently, is the question.

So, everyone on my flist knows that I don't curse yeah? If you didn't you do now!:P Anyways, at work today an officer came in and someone said something down the hall and he said STFU. But he it made it sound something like: stew-fo and I was like what the crap? So I turned around and asked him what he just said. He told me it was an acronym and- I cut him off there because I knew what he meant then. And, of course, he asked me what it meant. So I told him that I didn't curse but I knew what it meant. It's usually not a big deal about me not cursing. All the girls in the front now I don't. He sat down and started pestering me with questions.

Is it a religious thing?
Is it how you were raised?
Do you think people that curse are bad people?

What...the...crap!!!?

I told him no to all of the above and that I just felt that I sounded stupid cursing. Not ignorant stupid just like the words don't come out sounding right from my mouth. I told him that I think some people can make it sound...well not cool but how I THINK it should sound. LMAO! You have to understand I have a rather high pitched voice and everyone still thinks I'm about 18 even though I'm 27. I'm  not complaining about that! 

Now, I know people that read my stories and/or don't really talk to me aside from that aspect, probably thought that I cursed like a sailor. Nope! But when I'm writing a character I actually hear their voice in my head! I don't know if that's common place or not but it's not my voice so I think they sound completely different saying something that I wouldn't! Take, for example, Caine from Lycan Tales who everyone knows can't talk without cursing. Something happens that has him completely and utterly confused. Would he say:

"What the crap?"<~~which is what I say ALL the time!

or

"What the FUCK man?"<~~~Totally Caine. It's just...him! 

Don't mistake me! It's just not my male characters that curse. If it fits the character so be it.

IN RL it doesn't make me uncomfortable at all when people curse around me. Although sometimes I think some people curse entirely too much for NO reason at all but meh! Opinions are like butt holes...you know the rest. And it's not like I haven't been around cursing pretty much my whole life. I grew up military, lived in Newark NJ(yeah, think Jersey Shore the black version) and I work at a police department. Yeah, they really do curse like that! At least at the PD I work at.

Even if you Sim storytelling aren't your characters built BEYOND the Sims? Aren't they supposed to protray real people as if you weren't using them to TELL the story but to illustrate it? And if you write without the Sims how do you feel about it?

Whoa for completely long, rambley post!:P

Comments

(dolly_riot not arsed to switch accounts)

[azzy.livejournal.com]

Actually i curse much more in real life than on the internet, i am like the forgotten Osbourne, i think every third word out of my mouth is related to 'fuck' - which is actually used in the Danish language like it is in English, and i do mean the actual english word, and not the same word in Danish. I actually don't think i ever wrote a character neither in written stories or in a sims story that curse as much as i do. maybe it makes me super aware of it when i see it written, and it does actually look stupid in text, when i say it, i don't really notice.

[(Anonymous)]

I am really bad for cussing. I think I might even be worse than some of my characters. It's not that I want or need to, it has just become a habit. I grew up surrounded by it; my dad, my brother... practically the entire neighborhood. I mostly do it when I am mad though.

[followingwords.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough I only curse around people I'm really comfortable with. I've actually had people that I was just getting to know act surprised when I curse, even though I do it all the time when I'm with people I know well. I think cursing is a personal preference, and don't really care what people think. I do have a problem with other people censoring other people, unless it's around kids or something. And I do have a HUGE problem with people cursing around children (as I learned from hanging out with a friend of a friend who curses in front of her four-year-old all the time).

[eshuff.livejournal.com]

oh god I know exactly what you mean. I have a very light soft voice (people who call ask if they can speak to my mother), so cursing sounds like an 8 yr old pretending to be a teenager. It sounds GOOFY. However, that doesn't stop me when I'm really mad even if I do sound like Minnie Mouse throwing a tantrum.

I don't care whether or not people curse or what words they use. Occasionally something is going to slip out in front of the kids, like when husband drops something heavy on his bare foot. I don't stress over that. It would make me uncomfortable if someone routinely used four letter words in front of their kids but I don't know anyone like that.

Characters you've created should react and talk realistically, unless you're writing for an audience of children. I don't really know anyone who does that either or understand why they like to write like that. Whatever. Unless you're doing that, the characters should talk the way they'd really talk.

[gloomaphobia.livejournal.com]

I used to swear quite a lot but I've cut down quite a bit over the last year. I don't swear too much on the internet, mostly because I don't want to come across as a stupid teenager who thinks a dirty mouth equals intelligence. My characters in Wilde by Nature obviously don't swear, but that's probably because three of the characters are just children. Now that I think of it, most of the short stories and things I've written don't have much swearing at all. I guess I've never had a character who insists on swearing. I never really noticed that you didn't swear, but I think it's a good quality to have :)

[maonao.livejournal.com]

Count me in as someone who feels ridiculous swearing. This was not always so, I did a good bit of swearing aloud in my teens, but now? Not so much. My parents swore like truckers. I don't mind people who swear, but there is the ability to go too far.

My grandfather has never said a swear word in his entire life and I find that I mimic his style. We create alternatives. My husband laughs because when I get really, really frustrated I just start stringing random, ridiculous words together. My grandpa's favorite saying is "garsh darnit", which amuses me to no end. He says it with such passion and fury that it almost sounds like a swear word. When I try to swear now, it sounds awkward, unless I'm enraged. When I rant, I swear.

Anyway, I swear online more than I do in person. Although I do say "damn" and "hell" a lot. My characters, sims story or not, are allowed to do whatever. I don't feel weird having them swear. I have one particular character (non-sims), a female one, who enjoys swearing quite a bit. I actually enjoy constructing her expletives.

My husband was really, really bad with swearing until we started dating and I made him curb it. It was just really unattractive, he's incredibly, incredibly intelligent in all things academia and that, just ugh, no.

[shimmertwist.livejournal.com]

I wish I didn't curse as much as I do. I'm usually pretty good until I get to work, then I drop f-bombs like it's WWIII.

You're completely right; it does sound stupid and uneducated, but sometimes the only way you can get something across to stupid uneducated people is to speak their language! ;)~

[elecy.livejournal.com]

Personally, I don't curse. I don't really know why. I just never did it. I always just use other words to express my mood, such as "What the shnuzzle!?", "Holy Fudge Noodles!" or "Oh shnookies!" I suppose now I have a good reason to filtering my language. xD My nephews are at the age where they are beginning to repeat words and their parents, my sisters...they both curse like whoa xD I guess I have to be the one to teach them the right words, huh?

Of course, I have no problem with writing out curse words xD On the internet, I curse like a sailor! Whoo! But it also helps that some of my characters use curse words, I guess. I don't mind reading stories with alot of cursing, nor do I really care if I'm around people who curse alot because my mom curses enough to fill a cruise ship.

Plus, people get a kick at the filter words I use. xD

[cumonroxy.livejournal.com]

LOL Stew-fo! If I speak text STFU sounds like Es-Tee-Ef-U, I have never heard someone say it like Stew-Fo! XD

I curse like a sailor. My father, grandmother and aunt have told me so. My dad hates it, he only curses in moments of extreme stress but my mother used to curse AT me so I've gotten so used to it that it seems like just second nature. I do try to gauge myself if a person is comfortable with it though - I wait until they curse before I do and I do the same on the interwebz. I get that some people just don't like it, my dad told me "it just makes me sound ignorant because an intelligent person doesn't need to use such vulgar terms" but it all depends on the situation I guess.