Ideology and practice of swearing among young Chinese women in Singapore.

• Main Author: Lo, Isabel Mei Yan.
• Other Authors: Kang Yoonhee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Social behavior
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/18943
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study explores ideology and practice of swearing among young Chinese women in Singapore. Surveys and interviews indicate that young women’s swearing is related not to ideology but to their attitudes toward women’s swearing. Participant observations reveal multiple uses of young women’s swearing: as a mode of expressing emotions; as a marker of subcultural membership; as an affirmer of group solidarity; as a relational strategy in interaction. The findings support recent literature that demonstrates the gender-swearing relationship to be more complex than folklinguistic research suggests. While folklinguistic ideology reduces swearing to sex roles and gender norms, this study highlights the fluidity and flexibility of young women’s swearing; that in actual practice, swearing is linked to broader social structures and cultural ideologies. Prospects for the acceptance of women’s swearing were shown to be bleak, as social attitudes toward it remain traditional and hence largely negative.