Kathryn — I fear that the formerly nuclear F-word has been utterly defanged and denatured in our time. It is so overused, in the street, in the workplace, and across the classes that it has only a tiny fraction of the power it did even 20 years ago to insult or shock. It is so prevalent in daily life that you can’t always make accurate deductions about the class or education of those using it. (Though I still tell my own children that, should they be heard using bad language people will think they come from a trashy home. They seem dubious.) Among teenagers, taxi drivers, and workmen, but also housewives, traders, and journalists, it is as frequently used at the beginning of a barrage of swearing and insults as at the end. Undoubtedly there are regional variations in frequency. I’d guess that it is an urban thing. (Urban in both current usages.) Rap music has a lot to answer for. As does Hollywood. What serious modern character doesn’t swear? Characters who take offense are, usually, prigs. (Conservatives, upper class twits and old maid aunts…)
The word has also been decoupled from its literal meaning in most usuage. It has replaced “hell,” always a mild swear word, in many formulations. It’s used far more frequently in locutions such as “what the …f?” or “F… no!” and “Are you f..king kidding me.?” than to denote sexual intercourse. There are, as always, so many more colorful words for that, even when the implication is derogatory.