Gender Specific Profanity Use

INTRODUCTION
In the course of linguistics there has always been an underlying notion that males have a broader range of profanities in their arsenal opposed to females that have a more narrow knowledge and also that as individuals their of swear words differ in the presence of the same and opposite sex. Rarely are men openly expressive terms such as ‘Slut’ or ‘Bitch’ within conversation with a woman and like-wise woman follow a similar conduct with men, but when they are in a same gendered group this friction is no longer present and the use of swear words in both genders increase. It is within this notion that this survey tries to capture the context that adolescent men and woman use profanities. This assignment uses a variety of acclaimed swear words that are used in modern society in different youthful groups within Melbourne, hopefully identifying a certain culture of ‘do’s and don’ts’ in assimilation to addressing the opposite and same sex.
HYPOTHESIS
That males with have a greater knowledge in identifying the various swear words presented whereas females will have a more narrow understanding of the words presented. Also, that males will generally use more swear word and in a more frequent manner then females. Also that both woman and men will swear more in a same gendered group then when they are in a mixed gendered group.
BACKGROUND
Sociolinguistic theory and empirical research gives great detail and insights into gender based usage of swear words and the effect to which these words are used in context to the company in which they are conversing with. The sources used in this report stipulate that the fluency of profanity from an individual are sponsored in the presence of a same gendered group where as if the group was mixed, such language would be less likely demonstrated in case of offending the opposite sex.
Swearing and using profanities are part of our different modes of speech that exist in all human languages. In relation to gender specific usage and fluency of profanities generally men express swear more openly in public then woman do, while also using more and stronger coarse language then woman (Jay 2009). Culturally this stereotype has been instilled in society through the means of media and history with this notion of a woman being a submissive force as the man carries more dominant characteristics (Gregerson 1979 ) . Although the gap between the usage of profanities in men and woman have vastly narrowed and is becoming more socially acceptable, men still continue to concoct more offensive words at a more frequent rate than females (Jay 2009). Such phrases by a woman carry a softer note of aggression such as “Oh my God!” where as men would use harsher language such as “Fuck” at a more frequent rate (Jay 2009) this notion was backed by a study of self reported use of profanity (Selnow 1985) that indicated less profanity usage then men. Furthermore, it was found that both woman and men swear more frequently in groups of the same gender opposed to a group with mixed genders. Using the study of coarse language in Canadian fisherman Menzie (1991) concluded that the establishment of coarse language within a society shapes and forms a certain culture of gender inequality. Such conclusions were drawn from the demonstration of fisherman in a single gendered group that would use numerous amounts of lewd and derogatory references targeting woman to establish and solidify their in group solidarity. This understanding runs with another research conclusion that men have a higher tendency to refer to parts of a woman’s anatomy in a crude manner that woman rarely partake in because of its offensive nature (Jay 2009).

METHODOLOGY
AIM:
The general aim of this survey was to observe and hopefully find a trend in appropriate swear words that young Australian men and woman aged between 18-23 years of age have built in reference to the same and opposite sex. The survey focuses on identifying which swear words are most easily identified by a broader audience in between the intended age and exploring the context in which each swear word is performed. While this is being observed the survey will also allow insight as to which gender uses more swear words then the other, while also identifying which gender has a greater understanding of a range of swear words.
PARTICIPANTS
20 participants were chosen for this experiment, comprising of 10 male participants and 10 female participants aged 18-23 years of age from a variety of backgrounds.
Constraints on Participant Selection:

* The number of participants is highly insufficient to form any real conclusion as to the topic. * The choice of participants are subject to bias by the experimenter as they are directly chosen, this may lead to certain participants from different backgrounds being chosen over others, skewing the results. * Participants knew each other and majority of participants were from the same Area, indicating results are very area concentrated and do not establish a broad variety of backgrounds. * Survey of 20 words is insufficient in creating a viable test for such an experiment as they do not cover the majority of underground and mainstream swear words that would encompass the multicultural diversity of this age group in Australia. * Participants were required to have attended school to year 11 or above as to establish an education base for the survey.
MATERIALS
Please see attached Survey sheet.

PROCEDURE

Initially after selecting a viable candidate the survey was introduced to the participant though little information was given as to the purpose of the survey and they were asked to fill out the survey consent form upon which a survey sheet was produced for the participant to fill out. Due to the surveys simplicity and straight forward questioning and answering system the survey was conducted in a matter of minutes, participants were asked to look at the list of swear words and tick the box next to the swear word that corresponded with the question. The first question asking if the participant if he or she knew that word, the second question asking if they would use that word with a man and the third question asking if they would use that word around a female. After the survey was filled out the participant was debriefed on the purpose of the survey so the participant was well informed and no anxiety formed around the questioning.
This procedure was the same for each participant, the only variation being that some participants conducted the survey over the phone and others face to face, it would have been ideal for each survey to be conducted face to face as to control the environment further, however this was impractical given the availability of each participant.

RESULTS
Question 1
Fuck (M)10 (F)10 Snatch (M)10 (F)7
Cunt (M)10 (F)10 Spick (M)8 (F)2
Dick (M)10 (F)10 Douche (M)10 (F)10
Slut (M)10 (F)10 Dumbass (M)10 (F)10
Whore (M)10 (F)10 Dyke (M)10 (F)10
Mug (M)8 (F)3 Asshole (M)10 (F)10
Shit (M)10 (F)10 Asswad (M)9 (F)8
Shit-Face (M)10 (F)10 Pecker (M)10 (F)10
Jerk-Off (M)10 (F)10 Pussy (M)10 (F)10
Skank (M)10 (F)10 Wanker (M)10 (F)10
Results Analysis
This was effective in creating a standard so that the result can be evaluated in contrast to the participants understanding of the swear word, for if a participant doesn’t know the meaning of a word then it is only natural that they wouldn’t use that word in conversation with either gender. The results above give us an indication that men have a broader knowledge of swear words even words circulating more so in the English culture such as ‘Mug’, the males that participated still had a general understanding of the word where as the females had a less broad knowledge of such words though the difference between the genders isn’t too significant, they both generally understand an assortment of swear words.

Survey Question 2
Fuck (M)10 (F)7 Snatch (M)8 (F)0
Cunt (M)10 (F)4 Spick (M)6 (F)0
Dick (M)10 (F)10 Douche (M)7 (F)10
Slut (M)10 (F)6 Dumbass (M)10 (F)10
Whore (M)10 (F)6 Dyke (M)9 (F)7
Mug (M)2 (F)0 Asshole (M)10 (F)10
Shit (M)10 (F)10 Asswad (M)0 (F)1
Shit-Face (M)8 (F)8 Pecker (M)0 (F)3
Jerk-Off (M)6 (F)9 Pussy (M)10 (F)7
Skank (M)2 (F)8 Wanker (M)10 (F)10

Analysis
This question sought to discover the usage of swear words specific to the male gender, the results show that males tend to swear a lot more then woman in the presence of a male, though there are some variants in the use of certain words like ‘Skank’ assumedly due to the company such a word would rarely come up when two males are talking but would seem more suited to the context of conversation if a female was talking to a male. These variants aside the trend follows that males swear more around men than woman do.

Survey Question 3
Fuck (M)10 (F)10 Snatch (M)2 (F)0
Cunt (M)4 (F)6 Spick (M)0 (F)0
Dick (M)10 (F)10 Douche (M)5 (F)7
Slut (M)6 (F)10 Dumbass (M)10 (F)10
Whore (M)5 (F)10 Dyke (M)10 (F)10
Mug (M)1 (F)0 Asshole (M)10 (F)10
Shit (M)10 (F)10 Asswad (M)0 (F)0
Shit-Face (M)8 (F)9 Pecker (M)0 (F)0
Jerk-Off (M)0 (F)1 Pussy (M)10 (F)8
Skank (M)4 (F)10 Wanker (M)10 (F)10

Result Analysis
This question sought to discover the usage of swear words specific to the male gender, the results show that generally the same usage of swear words are used around woman in both genders except in regards to certain harsher terms that target woman like ‘Whore’ and ‘slut’, in these words you see a drastic decrease in male usage in conversation with a female. Also variants like ‘Mug’ and ‘Asswad’ generally show little to no use, assumedly due to its unlikely involvement in the Australian culture of profanities. Other than that the results seem to show that men maintain a heavy stream of profanities around woman and that woman seem to increase their use of profanities around those of the same gender.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion the results have indicated that men have a broad range of knowledge of profanities and are more likely to use them almost consistently in conversation or around woman and men, whereas woman have a more narrow knowledge of various swear words and tend to use a limited amount of profanities around males and then increase their usage of swear words when they are in conversation with other females. Having all this said, the norms of woman expressing themselves in a manner of swear words has highly grown and has become a part of the youthful culture of modern society, indicating that age plays a key role in the participants studied and the results obtained leading one to believe that the relation between gender and the usage of swearing is more complex and context related than was initially fathomed (Stapleton 2003). Differences in estimations of profanity use by men and woman reflect gender norms and stereotypes and also reflect usage in same- sex contexts where those words are accepted.

REFERENCES

Jay,T.(2009). The utility and ubiquity of taboo words. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 153-161

Gregersen, E.A (1979) Sexual Linguistics. Annals of the New York academy of sciences, 327, 101- 113.

Selnow, G. W., 1985. 'Sex differences in uses and perceptions of profanities'. Sex Roles 12: 303-312.

Menzie, C.R. (1991) Obscenities and fishermen. The (re)production of gender in the process of production. Anthropology of work review. 12, 13-16.