CHAPTER 5

What the $%#*!& Is Going on Here?

From the beach to the boardroom, and everywhere in between, our sound waves sizzle with curse words, sexual references, and crude colloquialisms. In business, social, and institutional settings, it sometimes seems that anything goes when it comes to what we say. In her research at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business, Dr. Carol White found that even the hallowed halls of academia ring with an unmistakable increase in cursing, references to the human anatomy, and offensive slang, among both students and faculty. Among students who responded to her survey, 47 percent saw nothing wrong with cursing in class. When you consider the proliferation of profanity in movies, music, and other ...

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