FCC and curse words

[Kevin]

There is an interesting article about the Supreme Court determining
the soundness of the FCC's crackdown on "indecent language here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/scotus/la-na-scotus5-2008nov05,0,457786.story

It seems to me that this is a great place to discuss theories of
language. Justice Roberts' idea that the f-word obtains its shock-
value from its reference to a sexual activity seems to me absurd in
the context of everyday life. If the shock-value was purely derived
from its reference, presumably the same shock would be invoked if I
said "sexual activity you you sexually acting mother sexual
activityer." Or consider the formulation "he speaks a lot of crazy
excrement." A purely referential theory seems entirely inadequate
here. Something like J.L. Austin's "performative utterances," or
Wittgenstein's "language games," or Stevenson's emotivism seems much
more fit to do the job in explaining curse words. They derive their
value from their practical use in certain contexts, not from their
referents. As a consequence, they have no universal value insofar as
they are determined by the circumstances of their use. On the other
hand, it does seem to me that the differential expurgation of curse
words by the FCC is very often arbitrary and politically conditioned.

Opinions?