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When we swear, what exactly are we saying? Why do we use the words we do? Do other languages use the same words? If they use different words, why?
According to Social Constructionist theory, using negative language can expose what is valued in a society by showing what is devalued.
Germany, Russia and Canada are patriarchal societies, albeit at different levels. Using a survey taken by myself in Anglo-Canada, Germany and Russia, I have determined the 5 most offensive words in these societies.
These 15 (actually only 10) words can explain a lot about Anglo-Canada, Germany and Russia, highlighting both their similarities and differences. In order to truly understand these words, we must first learn how to use them, where they come from and why they are so offensive to people.
Using the word ranked 4th most offensive in Canada, I will explain this theory:
Canada is a patriarchal nation, albeit to a lesser extent than others. Canada has never had a female leader elected in to office, although there was one Prime Minister, Kim Campbell, that was put in office for five months in 1993. Outside of this, only in 2015 was a leader elected who was openly a feminist. This followed a gender shift that included the leaders of four provinces and one territory being female, one of which being the most conservative province in the country. It shows that, although Canada has patriarchal elements, they are being weeded out.
Due to historical religious influence, Anglo-Canadians still find sexuality to be slightly taboo, although not to the same extent as others, such as Russia. Instead, Canadians focus their energy more on racism and race relations. Because of this, Canada polled a significantly high number of racial words by contrast to Russia and Germany. Canada prides itself on it's notion of multiculturalism. The society prides itself on the idea of bringing people from all over the world together in one society. This is either a point of pride, or a
bone of contention, depending on the person's definition of "all over the world". It would seem self explanatory, although there is debate of whether it should be defined as all over the world, or all over Europe. This was highlighted in the 2015 federal election, when former the Prime Minister campaigned for re-election, and part of his platform was based on bringing in "old stock Canadians", meaning those from Europe. Race is a far more taboo discussion in Canada than the discussion of gender.
Russia is a patriarchal society, basing it's conservative societal structure from practice of the Russian Orthodox Church. Russia has never had a female elected leader, and its last female monarch's rule ended in 1796, when Catherine the Great died.
The western concept of feminism has never taken root in Russia, and only within the past 10 years has there been a push for western feminism to be adopted, although it has been suppressed by the government and did not gain widespread support within the Russian population. More recently, the few gains that Russia has made regarding women's rights have been slowly reversing. Just this past month, the President altered laws, reducing the penalty for domestic abuse. Combine this with the blatant cover-up regarding crime statistics relating to rape, prostitution and human trafficking, it becomes clear that the well-being of women is unimportant to high officials.
Where Russian falters in gender relations, it gains in the notion of multiculturalism. In the west, multiculturalism is the concept of bringing people from many places into one, and exchanging their ethnic cultures. Russia is a large nation that spans two continents, immediately borders 9 countries and holds over 185 different ethnic groups. These groups range from ethnic European Orthodox Christians to the Tatar Muslims to the Mongolic
Buddhists. Since these groups have existed in Russia for centuries, the western concept of diversity is rendered either pointless or fulfilled, depending on your perspective. That's not to say discrimination and racism don't exist in Russia, but only that it looks different than the western categorization of the five "colours". Since multiculturalism has always existed in Russia, there isn't as much sensitivity regarding racial vocabulary.
Germany is a heteronormative, patriarchal society. Germany has advanced greatly in women's rights. Germany elected into office it's first ever female chancellor, Angela Merkel, in 2005, and has done much to continue advancing women's rights. Germany is also quite advanced regarding homosexual rights, however many things are still in need of progress. One example is that, although Germany legalized civil unions for same-sex couples, legal marriage has been blocked in the federal office my the largest political party. By global standards, Germany is very advanced. By western standards, Germany has much more work to do.
Germany has had a recent history of hypermasculine sentiment. During the notorious Nazi era, both women's and homosexual rights were nil. In fact, homosexuals were actively persecuted as part of the holocaust. Since the end of the Nazi era, Germany was slow to grant women's rights. Today, Germany has since rebounded from this sentiment. That said, homosexual rights have not been able to be match that of women. Another aspect to note is the lack of racial terms identified. The lack of racial related words is interesting, particularly since Germany has, probably, the most notorious history regarding race
relations of any European nation.
In conclusion:
All three languages have strong elements of patriarchy in their use of negative language, as can be seen in the excessive number of offensive words directed at negating femininity. This emphasis on gender stems from these nations histories with religion and patriarchy. The emphasis on sexuality also highlights the conservative nature of societies with strong religious connections. By contrast, the lack of racial words in German and Russian express the views of multiculturalism and expose the difference between western and eastern notions regarding multiculturalism.