For F*ck's Sake

July 31, 2023
Roache, a philosophy lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, debuts with an incisive investigation into how swearing “gets its power” to shock and offend. According to Roache, the “extent to which swearing is objectionable depends on context,” including tone of voice, the words that precede and follow the profanity, and the swearer’s identity (an average person’s curses are less likely to shock than an authority figure’s). Not all expletives are created equal; some are laden with connotations that render them especially insulting, including cunt, which historically “escalated to the status of swear word” because “women’s genitals... were regarded with distaste.” Later, she digs into such forms of censorship as sanitization, or using asterisks to obscure some or most of the letters of a swear—a practice that, she explains, serves as a mark of respect from writer to reader—and advises readers to more fairly judge others’ curses by “identify individual factors that make more or less offensive and... do not refer to swearers’ race, gender, accent,” as identity biases can skew perceptions of a swear’s egregiousness (for example, studies reveal that people are “more likely to view swearing as threatening when the swearer is a Black man compared to when the swearer is not a man or not Black”) . Marshaling a wide array of examples, from Bono’s use of “fucking brilliant” in a 2003 Golden Globes acceptance speech to Paul Robert Cohen’s 1968 imprisonment for wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words “Fuck the Draft,” Roache skillfully probes the complexities of profanity use and its relevance to decorum, identity, and power. This will intrigue linguists and potty-mouthed laypeople alike.

August 15, 2023
A senior academic offers a tongue-in-cheek examination of why, how, and when we swear. One might expect that an author who teaches philosophy at the University of London would be on the stuffy side, but Roache, host of the Academic Perfectionist podcast, is anything but dull. Her book is a lively examination of swearing in all its forms, and although it is often humorous, Roache also has serious points to make. Swearing is sometimes meant to be offensive, but much depends on the context. It can signal solidarity within a group or class, be used to emphasize a point and denote surprise, and have a cathartic quality that prevents disputes from escalating to violence. Brain scans suggest that swearing is intuitive and automatic rather than logical, an idea that fits its emotional basis. A surprising number of researchers have looked into this field, and Roache draws together their findings. She is mainly interested in swearing in the English language, and she traces the history of the key words and underlying concepts. There have been numerous attempts to censor swearing, but they have seldom worked, and there are terms that can be more offensive than a swear word, including racial slurs. The author disdains the use of asterisks when swear words are written since everyone will know what the word is anyway. Swearing was once seen as a lower-class phenomenon, but in recent decades, it has crossed socioeconomic and gender boundaries, to the point that it might have lost its power to shock and sting. Despite this, there are still some prohibitions. Swearing in front of children and from public figures is widely considered unacceptable. Those who are easily offended might want to avoid the book, but the rest of us will find it to be an informative, entertaining read. With dry wit and a storyteller's eye, Roache romps through the history and social meaning of colorful language.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 15, 2023
Roache, a philosopher at the University of London, examines swearing from linguistic, moral, philosophical, and social vantage points, showing how swearing is a trait of all cultures, and how its impact goes beyond the literal meaning of the words themselves. Depending on circumstances like context, tone, relationship between the swearer and the listener, race, gender, and ethnicity, swearing can empower, relieve tension, create tension, offend, set boundaries, and more; it can have personal and public consequences. Roache distinguishes between swear words and slurs, and discusses the way denigrating terms have been reclaimed by those against whom they were once used. She also considers the power of an asterisk to reduce a word's offense, a controversial practice condemned as long ago as 1850 by Charlotte Bront� in her preface to her sister's Wuthering Heights. Drawing from linguistics, social psychology, philosophy, and popular culture, Roache's book is both academic and hilarious. Readers lured in by the title (and its sanitizing asterisk), especially those interested in the far-reaching effects of language, and those who love to swear, will find much to ponder.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.