I'm Tired of the F -Word!

I'm tired of the F-word.  Years ago, that word carried a certain amount of shock value, but no more.  Just like the word "Reeeaaalllyyy," the F-word has lost the effect it once had.  Using it now is more likely to earn you a disgusted look than producing a shocked intake of breath and wide-opened eyes.  

I've often wanted to go up to perfect strangers in Walmart, the grocery store, or at a sporting event and ask, "What is it that made you think your shirt with that word emblazoned on it is appropriate to wear in public?"  My husband won't let me ask that question, however, because he doesn't want to have to defend me in the event that the shirt-wearer takes offense at the question. 

I wonder how parents explain the word when, in public, their young children sight-read it on a shirt (or worse, across someone's rear end) and ask what it means.  Not long ago, I was in a line at the grocery store when a young child not only pronounced the word in one of its forms, but also managed to sound it out along with the B**** word that followed it.  (The kid aced on the first try the other two words on the shirt, "I'm a . . ")  You know what happened.  Mom tried to hush the child, which only escalated the volume and frequency with which it was pronounced.  She'd shush the child, he'd up the volume, she'd try to pull his face into her skirt, he'd push away and repeat in a singsong, earsplitting register, the words over and over.

By the way, woman with the obscene T-shirt, is being a F****** B**** is something you're proud of?  Something you want to intimidate me with?  An honest assessment of your character?     

If people want to deck themselves out with obscenities or use them in everyday conversation, let them do so in the privacy of their own homes, not in public.  I'm tired of hearing it on television, hearing and seeing it in public, tired of it EVERYWHERE. 

Perhaps we should bring back some of the old words to use in an F-word situation:  Rats!  Darn it!  Drat!  Fiddlesticks!  Somehow, I doubt that the F-word users would go for those words . . .