Response to Raissah's Swearing Blog

I think it's true what you say about it being the way in which words are used which people find offensive, rather than the actual meaning, which as you have pointed out, can change over time anyway. Sometimes people (you use the example of rock stars or hip hop artists) do use the words because it is a symbol of rebellion in some people's eyes and does fit in with a "bad" image. And I agree also that swearing will never go away, mainly because it's very easy to do and very hard to prevent people from doing! Besides, what constitutes swearing anyway? Your examples of phrases such as "bloody hell" and "Jesus" illustrate how subjective the whole thing is and that what someone sees to be bad language, another person may see as nothing out of the ordinary.