Receipts:
Jay, T. (2009). The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(2), 153–161.

Mohr, M. (2013). Holy sh*t : A brief history of swearing. Oxford University Press, Incorporated

🗺️ Profanity is boundless: Despite being regulated, taboo language is persistent across time, space, age, gender, class, and culture. It’s found in all segments of all societies through all time periods. What's considered profane & how society responds to it obviously changes, but it's ever-present.

🧠 Profanity is primal: profanity is the domain of our brain's limbic system-the same part of the brain responsible for primal functions like emotional response, fight and flight response, and autonomic functions. Non-taboo language and other higher functions are the domain of the cerebral cortex.

📊 Profanity is ubiquitous: Taboo words represent about 0.7% of an average person's daily vocabulary (and as high as 3.5% for some potty mouths). This sounds small, but it’s similar to the rate we use first person plural pronouns. Linguists generally consider first person pronouns "high use” words.

What makes bad words bad?
What is the purpose of profanity?
How has profanity and language been used to control people?
How have people used profanity and language to empower themselves and their communities?

These are just some of the questions we will try to answer.

Stay tuned.🖕