Adam Briggs and Trials from A.B. Original, winners of this year’s AMP Australian Music Prize, use swearing to make a political point in their music.
Tracey Nearmy
The pervasiveness of profanity in popular culture underscores the absurdity of punishing people for using words broadcast on our screens and heard in our music.
Studies show swearing might be big and clever after all.
Africa Rising/Shutterstock
The “Fuck Fred Nile” case highlights the absurdity of criminalising “fleeting expletives” while allowing speech that depicts homosexuality as abnormal, unnatural and sinful.
The film’s exchange of Titty for Tatty is very much in line with Victorian censorship of profanities for children.
A new exhibition gives us an insight into the daily life – and language – of Australian soldiers in World War One.
Courtesy of University of Melbourne Archives, University of Melbourne.
When Australians went to the Western Front, language failed them. So they invented slanguage: a mix of slang, French words and creative swearing that, among other things, gave us the word “Aussie”.
The best way to remove the potency from an “offensive” word is to use it frequently.
Flickr/Andréa Portilla Follow
Why did Peter Dutton choose ‘witch’ when describing Samantha Maiden? The word has a long history of misogyny – particularly towards outspoken or powerful women.
All swear words come from those aspects of human experience in which we invest our deepest emotions.
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Is children swearing a bad thing? Should I scold him for using words he doesn’t know the meaning of? Should I discourage him from using swear words and refrain from swearing in front of him?
Minions, contrary to parental fears, have not been swearing at children – but why would that be a problem anyway?
Daniel Go
Parental concerns that Minions given as toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals have been dropping the F-bomb raises an issue: how far – if at all – should we go to prevent children from exposure to “bad” language?
Stop swearing and peace out.
EPA/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool
The Russian State Duma has passed a law that prohibits swearing in public performances. This is just the latest in a series of punitive legislative measures aiming to curb freedom of speech and expression…
What? I called you a ditch, Mike, a ditch …
Courtesy of FOXTEL
Warning: this article contains copious swearing. Let me start with a confession: I swear. Not gratuitously, but once in a while it’s nice to let off steam with a well-placed “damnit” or two, when running…