The saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words (names) will never hurt me” is just untrue because name calling do hurt us. Although verbal abuse doesn’t leave a visible scar by which we can measure the hurt, its pain is lasting and the recovery is difficult.
In a verbally abusive relationship, more subtle forms of abuses are present aside from name calling; this can include put-downs, accusing, yelling, raging, withholding, taunting, belittling, lying and other abuses disguised as jokes. At the bottom of all these is the desire to maintain dominance, control and power over one’s children or partner.
The subtlety behind this form of abuse is what moved the Weapon of Choice Project, a website dedicated to the demonstration of the power behind verbal abuse and to provoke a conversation regarding the problems of domestic violence, bullying and child abuse. The idea behind this project is to visually represent the damage words can do since it’s difficult to objectively assess its extent.
“World-class professional makeup artists generously donated their time to the project. The artists applied makeup to each participant to simulate an injury, and the hurtful word chosen by the participant was then incorporated.” says of Rich Johnson of Spectacle Photo, one of its contributors.
The name “Weapon of Choice” is fitting because the abuser consciously chooses specific words as weapons of abuse. The project has also discovered from the stories shared by its participants that verbal abuse is often followed by physical abuse. “Where we found evidence of one, we found evidence of the other. When the abuser chose to inflict harm, verbal abuse was just one of the weapons in the arsenal.” added Johnson.
You can find more information on Weapon of Choice Project by visiting their website and hopefully contribute to the conversation.