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Originally posted by KenJ:
Like everyone else, I have been exposed to that kind of language, believe me, after spending 20 years in the military, I’ve heard it all. Fortunately it has not transferred over to my personal life.
The minister of the church I grew up in was a retired Navy chaplain. He tried to keep a civil tongue, but sometimes he'd curse anyway, much to the amusement of all the teenagers. When I was 16, I was at the annual ice cream social and decided to take a turn on the swings on the church playground. The chain snapped and sent me flying headfirst into a tree--and I taught the little kids on the playground a whole new vocabulary. The minister's response? "Thank God! She's normal!" (I wasn't much for swearing out loud, unlike some of my peers.)

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My problem is with those individuals, let me reiterate, not necessarily on this board, that use it for shock effect or even gratuitously.
I agree that using profanity in fanfic just for shock effect doesn't really add anything to the story (plus it quickly loses the shock effect). It actually makes me think of the Frank Miller comic The Dark Knight Strikes Again, which has a lot of material that seems to be used for shock effect and wound up not being a very good comic (IMHO).

"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland