As a woman who has been constantly reprimanded for swearing, whether in public or by my mother, I will openly tell anyone that I swear like a sailor. I find swearing to be almost a therapeutic way of expression that can sometimes help me communicate frustration when regular words fail me.
It’s not just my love for cussing that is controversial, but also my love for beer. I think there’s something so whimsical about a woman who loves drinking beer and cusses.
In many spaces, beer is still seen as a drink that is intrinsically associated with the masculine, with ads tapping into imagery of beer being something rugged and gritty, often associated with aggressive masculine traits.
As a woman who enjoys a pint of Guinness as her drink of choice, I am unashamed in my brazen campaigning of beer being not only a drink that is catered to men but should be seen as a beverage which should be enjoyed by anyone who wants to crack open a cold one.
I see my beer drinking and cussing as the equivalent of the internet trend “#womeninmalefields.” I feel as though both cussing and drinking beer are often idealized and perpetuated as mainly male-dominated activities, and I see my participation as resistance to this audience.
While I don’t happen to drink beer that often, I am constantly cussing. I find my cussing to be something of a hereditary gene that has been passed along for generations. My grandma loved to cuss, so much so that she would meld certain curse words together to create new ones.
Profanity is frowned upon for its crude nature, although this begs the question of why some people get so upset with swearing. I deduce that swearing gives people the power of interpretation — some view certain curse words as worse than others
For me, drinking beer and swearing go hand in hand. In my opinion as an Irish woman, there’s just something so Irish about it. As a veteran Guinness drinker, I highly advise going out, getting a pint and tossing around a few f-bombs and seeing where the night takes you.
More women should take up space in bars and pubs. I think it’s time to stop thinking of bars as an inherently masculine space, and the world of beer commercials as only a masculine place of existence. These aren’t exclusive experiences, so why are we acting like they are?
For me, beer and swearing are something therapeutic, freeing almost. I want to take up space in male-dominated spheres. I want to cuss without it being seen as “unladylike” by a group of misogynistic males vaping in the back corner of Leopold’s. I find drinking and swearing not profane but expressive, not blasphemous but liberating.
