A few months ago I wrote an email about profanity.
Specifically, how I don’t really use profanity in emails despite what people think (other than if I’m quoting someone else, or I want to make a very specific point). And when I do, it’s usually something like the word “ass” — which, in my way of thinking, isn’t even profanity any more than word butt or booty.
Anyway, that email got several responses.
That response that stood out like a 4-letter word in church was:
Ass? Just a minor vulgarism. Very minor; just a common (if slightly crude) name for a body part.
I had an exchange with Bob myself over the use of euphemisms. It’s a bit funny what people will get upset over, but cursing is something that is widely misunderstood, anyway.
For instance, the euphemisms “sheesh” and “fricken” are just vulgarisms, not curses, and are generally understood as “sh— t” and “f___ing”. Similar, but more obscure, are “willy”, “dick”, “John Thomas”, etc. as euphemisms for “pee-nis.” None of those are actually cursing (“cussing”).
But the euphemisms “darn”, “gosh”, and similar, *are* curses, and are generally used in place of “damn” and “god” respectively. There is a substantial part of the potential audience that understands the difference, and objects to even the euphemisms in the case of curses.
As for me, I don’t give a rat’s ass. 🙂
— Howard Lee Harkness
Heh. He said “John Thomas”…
Anyway, my whole take in emails to *adults* is intent.
A word by itself means nothing.
A word with intent is everything.
For example:
When growing up, Child elBenbo’s brother was quite the John Thomas to our mom. And, he once tried to get around swearing by calling my mom an “ich” when he got mad at her instead of “bitch.” Now, you tell me. Is “ich” any less insulting and disrespectful than “bitch”?
More:
Is saying “shit” really any worse than “dung?”
They’re both words describing the exact same substance.
How is it any more offensive that poop?
Or turd?
Or pinching a loaf?
On the other hand:
I can say something like, “bitch please!” in response to hearing something outrageous or as a put down with my buddies and nobody is going to care. It not only isn’t “offensive” but it’s welcome and keeps the fire of snappy banter burning for more laughs. But, if I call one of my friends moms a bitch well, thems be fighting words.
Anyway, that’s my take on it.
Do with it whatever you want.
Personally, I don’t want to end up in a spam filter.
(Thus I had to edit some of Howard’s words above as such to make sure you could even read this.)
Thus, I proceed accordingly.
Okay, on to business:
The April “Email Players” issue goes to the printer in less than a week.
The entire issue is about building a responsive list for free.
One of the (many) methods I talk about for doing so is about a JV I did with someone who definitely does NOT swear in his emails (the great A-list copywriter Bob Bly) and how we both added a lot of quality leads to each others’ lists using nothing but free email.
Subscription info here:
Ben Settle
