I was writing a blog post for my website, about the etymology of the word fascist, and I wanted to write about how it's connected to the modern slang curse word for "homosexual" which used to mean "a bundle of sticks" (f-gg-t), but my ethics and, I feel, the integrity of the site would be compromised if I used such a hideous word. Thus, I used dashes as in the aforementioned example, but this brought up a good question.
While researching this, I came across an article from The Guardian by David Marsh, which raised an excellent point that too much censorship can obfuscate meaning. I also learned about grawlixes from Quick and Dirty Tips.com and What the #$@&%*! is that called?, but when there is little to no context provided, I can't really use [bleep]s or censor an entire word. I'm looking more of a method where it is crystal clear what I'm saying, without actually saying it. Euphemisms obviously won't work here.
I think the big dilemma here is this: how do I allude to a profane word while keeping maximum clarity? Do I censor all vowels, select vowels, all consonants, or select consonants? What would be the best way to allude to the above word (f-gg-t)? Is there any research or are there any linguistic papers written on this? How do I ensure maximum clarity?
Some sources that barely helped:
Correct usage of replacing cuss words with symbols (English Language & Usage)
Symbol Swearing (tv tropes)
What's your favourite way to cuss without cussing? (The EscapistMagazine)
What the Hell Do You Do About Profanity? (Daily Writing Tips)
Why do we still censor swear words? (Quora)
Thank you.
Best Answer
It is one thing to feel that referring to someone as a faggot is offensive. It is quite another to say that using the word at all, especially in the context of writing about the word itself, is offensive.
If you think it is fine to refer to the word and discuss its origins, but that actually writing it as "faggot" is morally wrong then see how far your conscience will let you go. "******" is inoffensive, but nobody will know what you mean. "f*****" is also too vague, and prone to misunderstanding.
The best way to bowdlerise but keep the meaning intelligible is to suppress the fewest number of characters which your conscience permits. It is usually easiest to supply missing vowels, so you could consider "f-ggot" or "f-gg-t". If you are still troubled in conscience you may need to consider cutting more letters out. You want your reader to know exactly what you mean though.
It is also important to be certain that your word cannot be mistaken for something else.
The football match on Merseyside ended Liverpool 2, Ev-rt-n 1 is ok, for someone who finds Everton offensive. It is unwise to give the Glasgow result as Celtic 3, -an-ers 2. On the other hand ambiguity could be useful if you describe your grandmother's sister as a great -unt.
IF the objective is to avoid offence though, caution is needed as the bowdlerisation could be more offensive to some people than using the word in full. The bowdlerisation in "he called me a f-gg-t" could be taken as suggesting it was offensive to call someone gay, which is probably the opposite of the bowdlerisers intention.
For clarity blot out as few characters as possible, even perhaps none; unless you need to to avoid being blocked on the web.