Fk yea I swear: cursing and gender in MySpace

Abstract

Youth-orientated social networking sites, like MySpace, are important venues for socialising and identity expression. Analysing such sites can, therefore, provide a timely insight into otherwise hidden aspects of contemporary culture. In this paper, MySpace member home pages are used to analyse swearing in the US and UK. The results indicate that almost all young MySpaces, and about half of middle-aged MySpaces, contain some swearing, in terms of both males and females. There was no significant gender difference in the UK for strong swearing, especially for younger users (16–19). This is perhaps the first significant evidence of gender equality in strong swearing frequency in any informal English-language context. By contrast, US male MySpaces contain significantly more strong swearing than those of females. The assimilation by UK females of traditional male swearing in the informal context of MySpace, suggests deeper changes in gender roles in society – possibly related to the recent rise in `ladette culture'.