American english has a serious deficiency of truly shocking expletives. Perhaps it is the paradoxical climate of verbal permissiveness where almost any profane utterance makes frequent appearances in popular media that has desensitized us, and thereby rendered our expletives impotent. When an american wants to use an expletive powerful enough to startle old ladies and make mothers hide their babies, there is really only one option these days. It is unfortunate that when american culture diverged from british culture, certain expletives were left behind. Words like bloody became mundane rather than profane. When we hear them used as utterances of frustration or anger, they sound more quaint than shocking. If it were not for religion, the only expletives we would have would be base remarks about excrement or improper sex.

People of the United States, use your expletives sparingly! Save them for when you truly need them or before long they may be about as shocking as exclamations from a 50′s sit com. Or better yet, invent your own horrifying epithets.