Swearing on television - gender, language, and power in the thick of it

My master thesis investigated gender differences in the use of swearing in the British television series The thick of it, a political satire known for its strong language. On the basis of material from four episodes, the use of swearing was studied through quantitative and qualitative analysis. The corpus used in the investigation contains 21029 words, broadcast between 2009 and 2012. The study draws on, and challenges, previous research which claim that women swear less than men do (Coates 2004, Lakoff 1975). The study also discusses gender differences in how and whether the relative status of speakers influences their use of swearing, and finds that powerful women swear more than do other women.