Andre Clay, Jade Cuevas, and Brianna Somohano

Professor Eva Pohler

WRC 1023-057
23 April 2014
Battle of the Sexes: Taboo Words
The average college student tends to have a clichd reputation that their use of
taboo words in everyday language is quite sizable, if not a main staple of conversation.
Though this clich may not be true for every college student, the reality tends to be that
each one tends to cuss in one way or another. But who exactly is at fault for this
reputation? In the grand series of the battle of the sexes, who are the real infamous
champions of taboo words in the college community men or women? In this essay we
explore this question in depth through a survey that was distributed to one hundred
students across the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Prior to distributing the
survey the hypothesis created was that men in a university setting were more likely to use
taboo words when compared to females.
Upon creating the survey numerous factors were taken into consideration.
Through the infamous reputations of a college student, observation, and personal
experiences the decision was made to focus on three main taboo words: fuck, shit, and
bitch. For each word there was a scale given of daily use. The options ranged from do not
use, 1-2, 3-4, and 5 or more times of daily use. From there it was decided to include
questions for the survey asking gender (i.e. male or female), classification (i.e. freshman,
sophomore, etc.), and college of attendance within UTSA. Once the survey was

completed it was distributed through the classes of professor Eva Pohler and given back
for further examination.
After gathering and interpreting our data we came to the conclusion that our
hypothesis was in fact correct. From the sample of males that were surveyed, we found
that they are more prone to using the taboo words fuck, shit, and bitch than our female
surveyors were. The females surveyed were more dispersed in their usage of the taboo
words on a daily basis. No matter the usage of the taboo words, whether it is 1 to 2 times
a day or 5+ times a day, more than half of our male and female surveyors use these words
to some degree than not using them at all.
Overall, it is apparent that college students both male and female uphold their
infamous reputation of frequent taboo word users. Our hypothesis turned out to be correct
with high results of taboo users of both sexes then initial presumptions. Through the
creation and distribution of a survey to one hundred UTSA students, details about taboo
usage among college students could be uncovered. Males in a university setting use all
the presented taboo words of fuck, shit, and bitch in much more copious amounts
compared to females. Though, females are not necessarily innocent themselves based on
the results of the survey. It turns out that the battle of the sexes cannot truly be considered
a battle when both sides wage high taboo usage.