If the United States had a “swear jar,” it would be full to bursting right now.

Indicating a further erosion of the difference between public and private spaces and behavior, an increasing number of publishers are following the lead of songwriters and Broadway by including profanity in their book titles. As USA Today reports:

Publishing used to be a gentleman’s profession. But the trend of using profanity in titles—already common in pop songs and even on Broadway—has now spread to books.

In the past year there have been three songs on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart with the f-word in the title. Chris Rock starred in the Broadway play The Mother—— With the Hat. And now publishing is awash with best sellers whose unprintable titles are, for the most part, being coyly disguised by asterisks and other symbols over select vowels on the jackets.

Examples cited in the USA Today story include the TV show and book S— My Dad Says, plus the books A——- Finish First, Go the —- to Sleep, and If You Give a Kid a Cookie, Will He Shut the —- Up? (elisions in original article).

The story states that the trend “has met with little or no resistance from booksellers,” although bestselling author Eric Metaxas said, “”Everyone seems to be afraid to say ‘that’s wrong’ for fear of being called a prude.”