I’ve always said that fuck is no longer a truly dirty word. In fact “the C word” is the only word left that still really gets a rise out of people which is why I advocate we use it sparingly. Once we make it commonplace we won’t have any good swear words left and when you hit your thumb with a hammer, you’re going to be very sad you don’t have some good words to throw around.
The Guardian in Expletive deleted talks about this. This passage below is interesting in that it describes some other words which are consdered dirty in England:
Further verification that fuck is, well, fucked, comes from Andrea Wills, the BBC’s chief advisor on editorial policy. “In research, 50% or more people said the words that should never be broadcast are cunt, motherfucker, nigger, Paki and spastic. Young women also don’t like whore, slag and twat. But fuck wasn’t on the list.”
Spastic?! Who knew?
But I agree with the article that the N-word is still one of the worst words you can say. I actually have a rather long story about that which I will save for another day when I have the time to do it justice.