Question to native English speakers

[rainsometimes]

I've started to think - a bit late, I know - that maybe I ought to be more responsible about the ratings I give my fics, especially perhaps when I post things outside my private journal on comms or on ffnet (though they have their own rating system over there). But when it comes to swearwords, I still don't think I really know enough about their impact and how it affects the rating. (Nor do I know the MPAA system very well, for that matter - but I'm not expecting an indepth explanation of that.) Should anyone reading this have the inclination and patience to give me a hint, I'd be very grateful - though I understand if no-one feels like it.



For instance, I'm curious about the words "shit" (and "shitty") and "goddamn". Are they generally considered about equally strong, or is one worse than the other? If they were to appear in a fic whose language and content is otherwise all within the G rating, how high should the fic then be rated?

And what about the f-word? Does that generally mean an R-rating? Or maybe PG-13?

I am of course aware that it's very hard to give hard and fast answers on this type of question, and in any case fanfics on LJ is hardly the same as movies. But some general hints would be great, even if they can't help but be rather subjective.

Comments

[tonko-ni.livejournal.com]

That's true! I forgot. I'm not American, and I think Canadians are less touchy about it, but the whole religion thing is pretty eek-worthy down there. US standards are sort of weird anyway--they'll censor sex WAY before they censor violence, they'll censor TEH GAY before het stuff (I mean even kissing), and they're touchy about religious imagery. Like the 4kids OP edited Mihawk's sword 'cause it looked like a cross, or something.

[zero-dances.livejournal.com]

Hahaha yeah I don't know. I just think it's funny they censore GODDAMN, but you can say GOD or JESUS in vain all the time. One cartoon on Cartoon Network even got away with saying GOOD LORD a couple of times.