{"id":1391,"date":"2013-11-27T14:53:47","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T14:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joind.co.uk\/?p=1391"},"modified":"2017-02-12T17:29:29","modified_gmt":"2017-02-12T17:29:29","slug":"melissa-mohr-holy-sht","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joind.co.uk\/melissa-mohr-holy-sht\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Sh*t: I understand swearing – at last"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was when my son was aged three that it started. \u201cBugger, bugger, bugger,\u201d he would say when he was at nursery, at church and out and about on the bus.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t think where he learnt it from,\u201d I remember saying with exaggerated puzzlement when I regaled a friend with this tale. \u00a0\u201cIt must be from his father.\u201dMy friend, who knows my mild-mouthed husband well and has also worked with me through many decades, said:\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s face it, Jo. It could have been a lot worse.\u201d\u00a0 And sure enough, it didn\u2019t take long before worse \u2013 a lot worse \u2013 it got.<\/p>\n

What should a mum do about swearing?<\/h3>\n

What is a mother to do? Do I tell my son it\u2019s unacceptable to swear and forfeit pocket money whenever a foul word leaves his lips? Does that mean I have to clean up my own act? Do I want to do that? Could I? Do I tell him it\u2019s sometimes acceptable for adults, but never for children? It\u2019s OK in private, just not in public?<\/p>\n

Cue Melissa Mohr and Holy Sh*t, a Brief History of Swearing<\/i>… How I wish she had written it before.<\/p>\n

This is an utterly delightful book. It\u2019s beautifully written, witty and in many places laugh-out-loud funny. It\u2019s also a serious book.\u00a0 She looks her subject matter square\u00ad-in-the-face. Mercifully, she never resorts to being silly or coy, though she does acknowledge her own sensitivity to taboo and the words she herself finds hard to write down.<\/p>\n

Swearing has a history<\/h3>\n

Mohr looks at the history of swearing, as in taking oaths (that\u2019s the \u201choly\u201d bit of the title) and at obscenities, those emotive words that tend to remind us we have bodies (that\u2019s the \u201csh*t\u201d bit).<\/p>\n

She traces their stories, from Roman times, through to the Bible, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Eighteenth and Ninet\"Cover<\/a>eenth Centuries right up until the present day, looking at how oaths and obscenities have evolved and how they are related to the culture of the day. It claims to be a brief history but it seems pretty thorough to me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth reading for the chapter on the Bible alone. I learnt a great deal from that and not just about swearing. For example, Mohr asks the question \u2013 why does God swear? Every word God says is true, so why does he say to Abraham: \u201cBy myself I have sworn\u201d in Genesis? And why does God command us to swear by him: \u201cThe Lord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by him alone you shall swear.\u201d (Deut 6:13)?<\/p>\n

Mohr explains the role of swearing is related to the establishment of monotheism.\u00a0 In the Hebrew Scriptures, God was one of hundreds of gods a person could worship and so he was in a quest to establish himself as the one true God.<\/p>\n

Swearing is a key weapon in this campaign. When you swear by God, you acknowledge that he is omnipotent; he is the one that can see your actions, hear your words. If you swear by Baal, you acknowledge his omnipotence instead. That is why God asks his people to swear by him and why he swears himself to them, by way of example.<\/p>\n

Taking oaths is a tool to establish monotheism<\/h3>\n

The taking of oaths, which is still part of our legal system and government today, is rooted in that tool to establish monotheism that goes right back to the days of Abraham.\u00a0 How interesting.\u00a0 (Well, that\u2019s one way of putting my response. What I actually thought was \u201cBlimey!\u201d)<\/p>\n

And while we\u2019re talking fascinating anecdotes, listen to this.\u00a0 Mohr takes us on a hilarious romp through the use of euphemism in the Hebrew Bible. She says it never refers to the genitals when hand, foot, side, heel, shame, leg or thigh will do.<\/p>\n

Eve is made from Adam’s penis<\/h3>\n

She then quotes the scholar Ziony Zevit, who argues that, in the Genesis narrative, Eve is actually made out of Adam\u2019s penis, in particular from his penis bone. Most mammals have a bone in their penis, a baculum, which helps with erections. Humans, spider monkeys, whales and horses don\u2019t, but the other species can\u2019t achieve erections through blood pressure alone and have a baculum to assist.<\/p>\n

Zevit claims that the ancient Israelites would have known about anatomy, being familiar with skeletons, and would have known men and women have the same number of ribs.\u00a0 Zevit thinks that in this story, the word \u201ctesla\u201d often translated as \u201crib\u201d is actually a euphemism for genitals, as it so often was. What the story really means is that Eve was made from Adam\u2019s penis. The baculum was taken from him and used to create his companion, thus in one neat myth you explain where women came from and why men don\u2019t have penis bones.<\/p>\n

Is swearing good or bad?<\/h3>\n

But enough of these tit-bits, I\u2019m sure that what you really want to know is whether swearing is a good or a bad thing and how embarrassed we should be feeling when our children start saying: \u201cBugger.\u201d (If indeed other people\u2019s children do.)<\/p>\n

Mohr does have a view, but she restricts her opinions on the rights and wrongs of using obscene language to the introduction and the epilogue. I am grateful to her for that. I am also grateful to her because through reading her entertaining history, I found myself developing my own thinking , so now I feel confident and robust in what I am passing on to my child.<\/p>\n

When my boy was aged six, he came to me and said: \u201cMum. I really want to swear. Can I? Will you be cross with me?\u201d I said: \u201cThat depends. Is it one of those occasions when only a swear word will do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that case,\u201d I replied.\u00a0 \u201cSwear quietly and make sure you don\u2019t repeat it outside this house.\u201d\u00a0 He came over and whispered in my ear: \u201cF***ing Mrs Stapleton!\u201d<\/p>\n

And he was absolutely right.<\/p>\n