Young People's Viewpoints Toward Women's Swearing: A Sociolinguistic Study in Depok

Although we often hear people use swearwords in daily conversation, swearing is generally perceived as improper or disgraceful conduct by society. Many studies on people's perceptions toward swearing have been conducted. They focus on whether men and women's swearing is perceived differently and which of the two groups use swearwords more frequently in daily life. Little is known about what young people think of this behavior, particularly when this taboo language is used by women. The aim of this study is to discover young people's opinion of women's swearing based on sociolinguistic perspectives. It also discusses the correlation between respondents' gender and education level and their perception towards this language behavior. Forty-two male and female students aged between 12-22 years old took part in this study. They were students of secondary schools and colleges who lived in Depok, a suburban district on the outskirts of Jakarta. The study was conducted by means of questionnaire. The respondents were asked to state their opinion about a number of situations in which swearwords are said by women. The students' perception was analyzed based on their gender and education level and the manually calculated data were converted into tables. The results show that female students are more skeptical, while male students are more tolerant toward this issue. Moreover, junior high school students are more averse than senior high school and college students.