Words Hold The Weight We Give Them

I was recently put into an uncomfortable position at a high school lacrosse game where two of my friends decided that it would be funny to make a sign with what many would consider to be "inappropriate" words on it. I had nothing to do with it, nor did I support it, but I still couldn't help but feel it was ridiculous how offended people get just because of simple words.


I do realize that when a word is used to insult an individual, it can hurt, but when they are used simply to add emphasis, what's the big deal?


This drives me insane in music. I have come to terms with the fact that I can't say certain words in certain situations, such as in class, those same words are also going to be edited out of everything I hear on TV, radio, or songs at school dances. I just don't understand it. 


It is clearly generational. I have put a lot of thought into this. When my generation was growing up, reaching maturity, we were told that 'the F word' was the worst word you could say. We couldn't say "shit" "ass" "hell" "bitch" and the list continues. Because of this, we wanted to say them more! So we did. We said them so much, that they lost any and all weight that they held in the beginning to make them offensive.


So now, to my generation, these are just words. Perfectly acceptable for a casual conversation. Not to sound like a uprising, rebelling teenager, but an adult telling me that I can't "swear" means absolutely nothing to me. The word "swear" or "curse" in of itself is an outdated concept. So why, could somebody please tell me, if we, the youth of America, the ones that adults are attempting to shield from this language, are going to hear, use, and EMBRACE, these words anyway, why can't they be in our music?


Kids are going to learn these words anyway, so why not let them embrace them? It causes no harm. By exposing younger children to these words, it makes it so that they are just like any other word, just like "gross" "ugly" "fat", words that yes, can cause harm, but are perfectly fine when used anytime but to be offend to a specific person. By letting kids learn these words, we are numbing them from the pain we create by adding such a heavy weight to words.


Unedited music is a right that every artist should have. To have their music, their creation, heard as they envisioned it. And I believe that it is every individual's right to hear that music as it was envisioned. The day we stop defining specific words as a "swear", is the day "swears" will cease to exist.