Profanity is the language of dysphemism, or the use of offensive metaphors to express disgust and negativity, e.g. "I got fucked [raped] on that exam" or "I had

Profanity is the language of dysphemism, or the use of offensive metaphors to express disgust and negativity, e.g. "I got fucked [raped] on that exam" or "I had a shitty day". These turns of phrase are banal to those who've heard them hundreds of times, but are utterly offensive and shocking to most people on the first introduction. The social danger of dysphemism, of course, is that some people will react not with disgust toward the target (the exam) but rather toward the person using such language. This leads to an inherent riskiness and edginess to so-called "profanity". However, a lot of people like risky behaviors, so this results in a proliferation of ironic or even positive uses, e.g. "my car is the shit" or "life is so fucking beautiful", that are often used to build camaraderie.