I know (more by hearsay than actually coming across it) that this website has an auto censor should an inappropriate word be used (especially on the Gfic side) it will *** it out. I've seen some authors who will * out one letter of a word so not to offend, and that for words allowed on network TV.
I saw a film this weekend in which it hit it's R rating in the first 5 seconds of the movie due to proficient use of foul language, and I was sorely tempted to turn it off had it continued down that road. (The film improved after that first scene. I wondered, since it was a VERY dark and bloody comedy, it was to chase off anyone with a weak stomach because what happened visually was much worse than the language. It almost seemed like a warning from the scriptwriter that if you can't handle the first page of my story, your life would be better if you stopped now.)
I've never enjoyed listening to excessive profanity, although there have been times in my life (when I was much younger and not yet a mother) when a good swear word seemed exactly how I felt, but I've grown up enough to have moved past that stage in my life. Plus, if anyone hasn't told you yet, that the best way to hear profanity is to say it in front of your kids, because they are little sponges and will willingly oblige to repeat you at the worst possible moment. (Like that scene in the Christmas Story where the mother has just washed little Ralphie's mouth out with soap and she asks him where he learned that foul word. Instead of saying the truth -- i.e. his father -- he threw one of his best friends under the bus.
)
Even over on the Nfic boards, it is only rarely that foul language occurs. I could probably count on one hand the number of stories which I've read that the writer used more than one swear word.
We have a good group here on the message boards, and creative writers who don't need to resort to it for shock value. For that, I'm very grateful.
