In the first episode of Looking, Dom drops the C bomb, and he does it so casually you could almost miss it. Upon hearing the word, the first reaction could be "OMG! The C Bomb!" but when you sit back and think about it, what the writers of Looking have done is something quite clever. They've portrayed swearing as it is in the modern day and by doing this they haven't given power to a word some of us find offensive. By having Dom use this word - a word that people find revolting and terrible - the writers are saying that swearing isn't as powerful as we make it out to be. If they had made Dom say it more than once then we could argue they were saying something about his character but because it happens once, and randomly at that, it shows accurately how our society has grown to accept - or perhaps live with - swearing. Today, swearing is something we hear all the time. We hear it in the streets, on the bus, on the stairs, in the elevator, everywhere. So why should it not be used in TV, film, books, any other form of art? Swearing is something we've grown to accept. Sure, some of us may not like it but that's the world - people swear and there's nothing we can necessarily do about it. The accurate way of showing this was done with care and appreciation for the society we belong to.
Thomas Stewart is a graduate from the University of Glamorgan and currently a student on the MA in Writing course at the University of Warwick. He is a Freelance Writer for Mens Fashion Magazine, Make and Believe, Smashpipe and more. As well as writing, he loves horror films, folk music, Raymond Carver, patterned jumpers, Richard Yates, curry, Scarlett Thomas, editing, chick-flicks, watches and biscuits.
