Talk:Vulgarity

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mlecole. Peer reviewers: Zmyer002.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:34, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Move most of it to an article about swearing

This article has been written mostly about the word "vulgarity" being used as an euphanism for swearing, and is not about vulgarity itself. I suggest that the stuff about swearing is moved to an article about swearing. Edit - I have moved it to the article Profanity. 92.15.21.134 (talk) 21:19, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Additional information.

Hello Wikipedia community, Here is what I plan to do in order to expand this article. If you have any comments, thoughts, ideas, or tips, or any other ways to help build this articlen please feel free to share them What I plan to add to the article of vulgarity are:

- Language, not only curse words, but how people can shape sentences and phrases in a vulgar way, such as an insult.

      - The word most associated with the verbal form of vulgarity is "cursing." However, there are many subsections of vulgar words. In the book, "Cursing in America" by Timothy Jay, Jay makes a classification of the "dirty words" because it "allows people interested in language to define the different types of reference or meaning that dirty words employ. One can see that what is considered  taboo or obscene revolves around a few dimensions of human experience that there is a logic behind dirty word usage." (page 9) 
      - Cursing (vt.) To call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury upon. (a) A prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come to one. Intended to provoke someone else. 
        These words have been recognized by religious organizations as being able to cause actual mental and physical harm. More recently such words have separated itself from their religious meanings, and it is doubtful that those who use curse words imagine the words will bring actual mental or physical harm. Both party's are aware that the cursing is simply an expression, and the one receiving the curse words or phrase are aware they are being targeted.
             - Examples. A religious curses: Damn you, Goddamn you, To hell with you. Cursing also includes non-religious: Eat sh*t and die, I hope you break your neck, You should rot in jail 
      - Profanity (vt) To treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt. (adj) Not concerned with religion or religious purpose: secular :not holy because unconsecrated, impulse, or defiled : unsanctified. 
        For a word or phrase to be profane it must not be religious or function outside the duties of religious belief. To be profane means for the word or phrase to be ignorant or hateful towards the rules of religions. Examples of profanity are words or a phrase not meant to belittle Gods, their religions, but situated on the ignorance and indifference to such points.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mlecole (talk • contribs) 21:45, 31 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

- Symbol, I want to explore the more physical forms of vulgarity as well, such as using the middle finger, or other ways to express threatening or vulgar gestures against another person.

- Behavior, along with language and symbols, how you behave can be vulgar, such as being inattentive/rude in class or in parts of the world being late is considered an insult.

- Vulgarity in the media

- Censorship of vulgarity

I plan to expand this article both in examples for more people to understand what vulgarity is and how they can express it. (But maybe shouldn't). Since I know the most about vulgarity in the Americas, I will be focusing on that. However I will be researching vulgarity and what is considered as vulgar to each of the continents. I hope this will help broaden the sights on the world and help people understand other cultures in a sociological and cultural view. Many things which is seen as taboo and vulgar in one continent, can be a very casual thing in another, and with research and more in depth examples I hope to provide the information necessary to inform the readers of this article more about vulgarity.

Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).^[1]^[2]^[3]

References

^ Jey, Timothy (1992). Cursing in America. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9781556194528.
^ Nasaw, Daniel. "When did the middle finger become offensive?". BBC. BBC News Magazine.
^ Ravenwood, Emily (1999). "The Innocence of Children: Effects of Vulgarity in South Park". Purdue University. 1 (2).

Mlecole (talk) 00:07, 18 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Mlecole, be careful that you don't stray into other topic areas, such that the article becomes about 'rudeness' in general and remember that everything has to be sourced. Good luck. Pincrete (talk) 09:40, 18 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Mlecole, vulgar language CAN be a synonym of Profanity, ie cursing, swearing, and 'a vulgarity' can refer to swearing or speaking indelicately about a subject, but vulgarity and profanity are not primarily synonyms. Not sure what to suggest, but if you look at the head of this talk page, you'll see that much of the aricle has previously, and rightly IMO been moved away from this page. Pincrete (talk) 23:52, 9 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Pinecrete, True, I've been trying to find sources to be able to add more to the article but every time I find something it always seems like it can be moved to something other than vulgarity. Do you think gestures (middle finger, forearm jerk, chin flick) would fit in this article? Also does anyone know if the words used should be censored or not? (on a related note) would censorship of vulgarity in the media be a good section for this article? Mlecole (talk) 18:23, 16 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Mlecole, you 'named' me wrongly, so I didn't get your message ([[User:name, rather than [[user talk:name ). I'm not sure how best to answer your question. Vulgarity -in its modern meaning - is an abstract quality, denoting words, behaviour, attitudes, dress or personal taste that others consider unacceptably 'low' 'common', 'lacking social grace' or 'good taste'. Any behaviour or action CAN BE thought 'vulgar' and obscene gestures, discussing 'indelicate' subjects (telling someone the details of a recent visit to the toilet!), etc. etc. etc., can all be cited as examples of what some would consider vulgar. Maybe that could be a way forward, if its possible, trying to isolate the central defining qualities etc. that define/have defined vulgarity at different times and places. A list of things, deeds, words that are sometimes thought vulgar, would both be very long, and a bit pointless. In the UK, there are those who think the word 'toilet' vulgar, insisting on the word 'lavatory', others who insist on the reverse, whilst in the US both are considered a bit vulgar, 'bathroom' being preferred. I'm not sure how helpful that is, except to point out that vulgarity is always, to a degree 'local' to the group/society.Pincrete (talk) 13:36, 17 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I've just noticed your later questions, there is no censorship on WPedia, any words or subjects you need to use or cover are OK. My guess would be that in the real world, there would not be rules of censorship based on vulgarity as a term, whilst specific censorship might exist based on vugarity (meaning 'bad language') or notions of 'bad taste' etc., I doubt that these would be framed as banning 'vulgarity' as such. Pincrete (talk) 15:53, 17 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Jey, Timothy (1992). Cursing in America. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9781556194528.

[2] Nasaw, Daniel. "When did the middle finger become offensive?". BBC. BBC News Magazine.

[3] Ravenwood, Emily (1999). "The Innocence of Children: Effects of Vulgarity in South Park". Purdue University. 1 (2).

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