![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
For the non-playground-enabled, the full taunt goes this way:
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."
Although, more often than not, the saying isn't used as a schoolyard retort any more, but as some sort of sage advice passed on from adults to children about the transience of the mental anguish of childhood and bullying that hasn't yet escalated to the physical.
Take a moment, if you need, to learn about how many youth take their own lives due to bullying, whether mental, electronic, or physical. How many more do so because in their minds, things have gone from bad to worse to unteneable, and they cannot see a way out nor do they have someone they trust to talk to about all of it that knows what to do with that information. (Add in the lot of adults that do the same, or commit murder-suicides, if the numbers that you have aren't sufficient to point out the problem.) And this is with projects trying to counter the negative messages those kids receive.
That's just the amount of people that take their lives. We haven't touched the even bigger swath of abusive relationships that never have any bruises or visible marks on them, but that do just as much damage or more as if they were physically beaten. Or the assaults that come from the media, from dittoheads, pundits, shysters, image manipulators, moving picture studios, and advertising agencies whose sole purpose it is to tell you that you are lacking and that the purchase of this product or service will remove that lack, allow you to cover it up, or give you a reason to attack your peers for their lacks.
Do you have a significant other? Are you able to please them in all ways, including those deep secrets in their brains that they haven't revealed to you but that they really, really, want? No? Then they're either cheating on you or planning on doing so. If you want to keep them, then you'll want to purchase this magazine with our sex tips that will bring their attention back to you. (At least, until next issue.)
Are you wealthy enough to pay all your bills and have enough left over for emergencies? If not, penury will soon haunt you, unless, that is, you choose to purchase our book / invest in our gold firm / take this job.
And what about the children? If you can't send them to the very best schools and give them everything they need, they'll FAIL horribly and become drug addicts living in the ghettoes and it'll be ALL YOUR FAULT. What kind of horrible parent are you that you don't want your children to do well? Nevermind the tuition cost, THINK OF THE CHILDRENS.
Men! You're not virile enough! Why? Because your wives and girlfriends don't want to have sex with you every time they see you! Thankfully, all it will take is our product to make you the stud they are fantasizing about while they're with you!
Women! You're not attractive enough! You need to lose/gain weight, put on/take off your makeup, wear more/wear less so that you can be like our models and turn heads!
Children! You're not cool enough! You don't have the latest fads in toys! Teens! You're not cool enough because you aren't fully with the fickle winds of fashion, you're too smart / too dumb / too weird / too conforming for your peers, and because your social status is too high / low! Just do what we tell you to, and you'll be cool in no time!
Sticks and stones will break our bones, but names will really hurt us. Not just the ones that are slung about as insults, put-downs, and reasons to invoke discipline on you by your employers, but all the other ones that are more subtle, and most especially all those names that we take on and tell ourselves are true. Even if they're totally not true, and everyone else can see that they aren't true.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."
Although, more often than not, the saying isn't used as a schoolyard retort any more, but as some sort of sage advice passed on from adults to children about the transience of the mental anguish of childhood and bullying that hasn't yet escalated to the physical.
Take a moment, if you need, to learn about how many youth take their own lives due to bullying, whether mental, electronic, or physical. How many more do so because in their minds, things have gone from bad to worse to unteneable, and they cannot see a way out nor do they have someone they trust to talk to about all of it that knows what to do with that information. (Add in the lot of adults that do the same, or commit murder-suicides, if the numbers that you have aren't sufficient to point out the problem.) And this is with projects trying to counter the negative messages those kids receive.
That's just the amount of people that take their lives. We haven't touched the even bigger swath of abusive relationships that never have any bruises or visible marks on them, but that do just as much damage or more as if they were physically beaten. Or the assaults that come from the media, from dittoheads, pundits, shysters, image manipulators, moving picture studios, and advertising agencies whose sole purpose it is to tell you that you are lacking and that the purchase of this product or service will remove that lack, allow you to cover it up, or give you a reason to attack your peers for their lacks.
Do you have a significant other? Are you able to please them in all ways, including those deep secrets in their brains that they haven't revealed to you but that they really, really, want? No? Then they're either cheating on you or planning on doing so. If you want to keep them, then you'll want to purchase this magazine with our sex tips that will bring their attention back to you. (At least, until next issue.)
Are you wealthy enough to pay all your bills and have enough left over for emergencies? If not, penury will soon haunt you, unless, that is, you choose to purchase our book / invest in our gold firm / take this job.
And what about the children? If you can't send them to the very best schools and give them everything they need, they'll FAIL horribly and become drug addicts living in the ghettoes and it'll be ALL YOUR FAULT. What kind of horrible parent are you that you don't want your children to do well? Nevermind the tuition cost, THINK OF THE CHILDRENS.
Men! You're not virile enough! Why? Because your wives and girlfriends don't want to have sex with you every time they see you! Thankfully, all it will take is our product to make you the stud they are fantasizing about while they're with you!
Women! You're not attractive enough! You need to lose/gain weight, put on/take off your makeup, wear more/wear less so that you can be like our models and turn heads!
Children! You're not cool enough! You don't have the latest fads in toys! Teens! You're not cool enough because you aren't fully with the fickle winds of fashion, you're too smart / too dumb / too weird / too conforming for your peers, and because your social status is too high / low! Just do what we tell you to, and you'll be cool in no time!
Sticks and stones will break our bones, but names will really hurt us. Not just the ones that are slung about as insults, put-downs, and reasons to invoke discipline on you by your employers, but all the other ones that are more subtle, and most especially all those names that we take on and tell ourselves are true. Even if they're totally not true, and everyone else can see that they aren't true.
