A foul-mouthed America

This is a story about words we can’t print in this story.

You probably hear these words often, and more than ever before. But even though we can’t print them -- we do have our standards -- we can certainly ask: Are we living in an Age of Profanity?

Nearly three-quarters of Americans questioned last week (74%) said they encounter profanity in public frequently or occasionally, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. Two-thirds said they think people swear more than they did 20 years ago. And as for, well, the gold standard of foul words, a healthy 64% said they use the F-word -- ranging from several times a day (8%) to a few times a year (15%).

Just ask Joe Cormack. Like any bartender, Cormack, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, hears a lot of talk. He’s not really offended by bad language -- heck, he uses it himself every day. But sometimes a customer will unleash the F-word so many times that Cormack just has to jump in.

“Do you have any idea how many times you’ve just said that?� he reports saying from time to time. “I mean, if I take that out of your vocabulary, you’ve got nothing!�

And it’s not just at the bar. Or on TV. (Or on the Senate floor, for that matter, where Vice President Dick Cheney used the F-word in a heated argument two years ago.)

At the community college where Cormack studies journalism, students will occasionally inject foul language into classroom discussions. Irene Kramer, a grandmother in Scranton, Pa., gets her ears singed when passing by the high school near her home.

“What we hear, it’s gross,� says Kramer, 67. “I tell them, ‘I have a dictionary and a Roget’s Thesaurus, and I don’t see any of those words in there!’ I don’t understand why these parents allow it.�

For Kramer, a major culprit is television. “Do I have to be insulted right there in my own home?� she asks. “I’m not going to pay $54 a month for cable and listen to that garbage.� And yet she feels it’s not a lost cause. “If people say, ‘Look, I don’t want you talking that way,’ if they demand it, it’s going to have to change.�

In that battle, Kramer has a willing comrade: Judith Martin, who writes the syndicated Miss Manners column.

“Is it inevitable?� Martin asked in a recent interview. “Well, if it were inevitable I wouldn’t be doing my job.� The problem, she says, is that people who are offended aren’t speaking up about it.

“Everybody is pretending they aren’t shocked,� Martin says, “and gradually people won’t be shocked. And then those who want to be offensive will find another way.�

Perhaps not surprisingly, profanity seems to divide people by age and by gender.

Younger people admit to using bad language more often than older people; they also encounter it more and are less bothered by it. The AP-Ipsos poll showed that 62% of 18- to 34-year-olds acknowledged swearing in conversation at least a few times a week, compared with 39% of those 35 and older. And more men admitted to swearing: 54% at least a few times a week, compared with 39% of women.

Wondering specifically about the F-word? Thirty-two percent of men said they used it at least a few times a week, compared with 23% of women.

“That word doesn’t even mean what it means anymore,� says Larry Riley of Warren, Mich. “It has just become part of the culture.� Riley says he uses the F-word a few times a week. And his wife? “She never swears.�

A striking common note among those interviewed, swearers or not: They don’t like it when people swear for no good reason.

Darla Ramirez, for example, says she hates hearing the F-word “when people are just having a plain old conversation.� The 40-year-old housewife from Arlington, Texas, will hear “people talking about their F-ing car, or their F-ing job. I’ll hear it walking down the street, or at the shopping mall, or at Wal-Mart.

“What they do in their own home is their business, but when I’m out, I don’t need to hear people talking trashy,� Ramirez says. She says she swears about once a month -- but not the F-word.

The AP poll questioned 1,001 adults from March 20 to 22, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.