JONATHAN DREW discovers how the anti-cursing crowd is losing the fight -- and catches one of them swearing.
Ginny Foster was the closest thing you could find to a spokeswoman for the anti-profanity movement.
In 2004, she spent $10,000 on T-shirts, hats and bumper stickers that promoted clean language. She set up a Web site to peddle the items and gave away stickers and signs in her hometown of Spokane, Wash.
But less than two years later, Foster has given up her crusade. The Web site was flooded with hundreds of expletive-laden e-mails after she appeared on a Showtime television series. The site has since been taken down, and she has a closet full of unsold anti-cursing merchandise.
"There's not a fire in my belly to go out and evangelize the whole world and get them to stop cursing because I think it's futile," she said. "I don't think it's something that we're going to stop."
Clearly, promoting clean language is a lonely battle. An Associated Press poll found that 74 percent of Americans said they encounter profanity in public frequently or occasionally. Fewer admit using the words themselves, with 59 percent saying they use swear words in conversations at least a few times a month.
But it's more common among young people: 62 percent of respondents ages 18-34 said they use curse words at least a few times a week, compared to 39 percent of those 35 and older.
Linguists say having a potty mouth has become more acceptable as profanity has become more common in television, music and movies, lessening the words' impact.
"People are using (profanity) in completely neutral and surprising situations," said John Singler, a professor of linguistics at New York University. Consider the realtor, he says, who tells prospective clients "'here's the f-ing kitchen.' There's no taboo there. It's just another word."
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COARSENING THE DIALOGUE?
Ubiquity doesn't necessarily mean acceptance.
According to the survey conducted for The AP by Ipsos Public Affairs, only 21 percent said they never use profanity, but 67 percent say the use of profanity or swear words bothers them at least "some." The phone survey of 1,001 adults from March 20-22 had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points; the 18- to 34-year-old subgroup's margin of error was plus or minus 8 points.
Still, anti-profanity efforts have failed to gain traction. There have been campaigns by conservative groups to curb coarse language on television, but curse words are still heard on the broadcast networks. Take, for example, ABC's decision in 2004 to air the profanity-laden "Saving Private Ryan," which the Federal Communications Commission later deemed to be acceptable.
Singler says the F-word in particular has become more common today than it was 20 or 40 years ago. Two-thirds of poll respondents agreed that people use profanity more now than 20 years ago.
At this point, it's hard to find people working to stop swearing in everyday conversation.
"There are so many other issues to deal with that people consider of a much more serious nature that they're not devoting time towards cleaning up language," said James O'Connor, author of "Cuss Control," a self-help book on how to curb swearing.
Demand for O'Connor's book was initially high, and it sold through three printings in 2000 on an imprint of Random House. O'Connor has been mentioned in hundreds of newspaper articles and on dozens of television shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show. But sales have since tapered off, and O'Connor is now self-publishing the book through iUniverse.
"For the enormous amount of publicity I got, I thought it would sell a lot better. It remains an extreme mystery to me, to my literary agent, why this didn't take off," O'Connor said.
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LETTING ONE FLY:
As O'Connor demonstrates, it's easy to let one fly, even if you have the best of intentions.
The cursing critic delivers a half-dozen seminars to schools and businesses on cursing each year. In describing his rationale for coming up with solutions to problems instead of cursing about them he asked, "Why don't you have an answer to what everyone's bitching about? Or what everyone's complaining about, I should say."
Oops.
In some cases, the impulse to curse is tied to our involuntary response to stress, says psychology professor Timothy Jay. In other words, a person could make an effort to stop using profanity in casual conversation, but it's nearly impossible to keep it from slipping out during a tense moment such as a car accident.
"You can't merely say people can choose not to do this. Because we have no control over our emotions," said Jay, who has written several books on the psychology of cursing. "When those situations bloom on us it's really hard to inhibit on something that's automatic."
Such a dilemma isn't lost on Jennifer Martin, who chooses not to curse to set a positive example for her 1-year-old son. However, Martin says the words can't help but slip out sometimes.
"It's usually when I'm driving. There have been a couple of times where I was almost in a car accident," said the 24-year-old who lives in Portland. "If I'm in a situation that surprises me -- like when my life is in danger -- that's really the only time I use it."
Martin is earning a master's degree to teach high-school or middle-school English and hopes to show her students why it's better not to curse.
"The English language isn't used to its full extent and purpose," she said. "There are plenty of explanatory words that can be used instead of swearing. So why not use those?"
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Jonathan Drew is an asap reporter in New York.
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