Quote From: PennyLane78How do they hurt? The f-word and the n-word do not inherently hurt and I would venture to say that MOST of the time, people CHOOSE to be hurt by WORDS. It's not the WORD itself, it's the intention behind it that has the potential to hurt. And even then...people choose to be hurt.
Both these words have power because we as a society decided that they have power. They are nothing more than sound waves made by our mouths that are received by our ears and translated by our brains.
In basic psychology 101 you are taught that nothing someone else says to you can really effect your life it is how you choose to react, to a certain degree I concur.
On the other hand, look at children when they are made fun of call and called names it spreads like wildfire among children, and then before you know it they are socially isolated and not wanting to go to school because it is a war zone. As we get older, we are chosen for jobs, admitted to colleges and are successful based on our skill set, it would take one person to start lies or rumors about someone to ruin careers, marriages and even start wars. So to say words have no power is a little naive, at best... at worst it can destroy lives.
