Earlier this week I put an empty jar on top of my kitchen counter with a label saying “No swearing”. This device is supposed to stop my daughters from breaking linguistic taboos: if they curse, they have to deposit a dollar in the jar.
But the device is also meant to control me. In recent months, as stress has risen in these politically tumultuous times, swear words have been popping out of my mouth. So I have committed to honour that dollar pledge as well, in a bid to prevent my daughters from copying me.
Is this just a piece of domestic trivia? Perhaps. But, as anthropologists have long argued, the way that cultures define “swearing” is a barometer for social norms. And when it comes to western culture today, the question of whether we do (or do not) swear reveals some interesting points about changing gender roles — and the internal conflicts that these keep throwing up.