Well, now - there's a problem. Not the use of any particular word, but the THOUGHTLESS use of any word.
If my character is the sort to pepper his (or her) speech with the f-bomb, so be it. If the situation demands a particular type of attention grabber - for example, if it is specifically aimed AT the "tone police" who don't care about injustice, but very much seem to care about women not using profanity, then so be it. I have directed that word at my own father - but never casually. Never just because.
I once worked as a moderator for a man who ran a writing form - one of his requirements was that any moderator who worked for him know how to spell "fuck" without asterisks. The point was, he didn't want censors, prudes, and prissy people running a writers' forum. That didn't mean we'd let sloppy editing slide, nor that we'd suggest a piece be spiced up a bit with extra swear words.
Not all writing calls for it; some specifically calls for restraint (for example, if writing a speech for a decent President). Some writing would benefit from a good edit, expunging every instance of profanity that was laced throughout as a substitute for "ah, um" and commas. THAT is laziness - the casual misuse of a good, explosive, Anglo-Saxon cuss word, rendering it meaningless drivel.
Note that, had Shepherd used the word itself, the censors would not have allowed it to become the family-oriented Christmas Classic that it is. But he drew very specific attention to that word - imagine all the chagrined parents who have had to explain to their children what was said. (Or those who didn't. You cannot imagine how disappointed I was, when I reached the ripe old age of 21, and my mother finally deemed me old enough to hear the "raunchiest joke she'd ever heard." Honestly, I hadn't realize until then what a sheltered life that woman must've led.)
My grandmothers are dead. One of them wouldn't read anything with even the mildest profanity in it. I read quite a bit at her house (there wasn't much else to do, there), but curiously - and I only realized how odd it was, in later years - most of the books I read there were "abridged." Or they were books like "Song of Bernadette." Or, my favorite - which I'm convinced she never read, due to its graphic description of the birthing of a cow, "All Creatures Great and Small."
She wouldn't read books by black authors or books about diverse characters, either. I know, because I sent her one, once. It was returned, spine unbent.
The other was a voracious reader - as was my mother - and no book was ever kept under lock and key in our house. Few were shocking, but all were entertaining.
Every September, I celebrate Banned Books Week with my kids (especially my daughter). All I ask is that they use the Amazon gift card I send to buy and read something off the banned and challenged list from the ALA. You miss out on a lot of great classic literature if you don't.
