Words cannot cause physical harm because they are just spoken after all, the main damage done by verbal abuse is mentally and emotionally.  Domestic abuse is a huge problem today across the world, and that is not a good thing.  “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”  A common quote among children to get their peers to stop calling them names because they do not affect them.  Domestic abuse is abusive behavior towards one’s significant other and it comes in many forms, such as physical, mental, verbal, and even emotional abuse.  In this advertisement on domestic abuse awareness, it states that words do in fact hurt, not visible to the naked eye, but the emotional and mental toll it takes on a person could scar them just like any fist can.  By looking at the kafa.org.lb ad, we can see that the women have wounds in the shapes of sound waves made by derogatory words used to discriminate women.  This depicts that words can cause damage just as much as a fist can, which is not obvious to most people.  This is important today because domestic abuse is growing and does not look like it is slowing down or stopping any time soon.  People die every day from domestic abuse and it is not something that someone can just turn their head about, no one should have to suffer in silence.  

Tens of thousands of people are affected by domestic abuse every day in some way, shape or form.  This eventually adds up and domestic abuse affects approximately ten million men and women each year (NCADV).  The common misconception is that only women suffer from domestic violence, that is false.  Statistics show that on average, one in three women have had a physical altercation with their intimate partner, men are not far behind with one in four.  This advertisement was extracted from Buzzfeed.com, this website had a compilation of domestic violence ads across the world.  This particular soundwave advertisement was chosen because it was the most breathtaking and shocking.  The fact that they have twelve advertisements advocating domestic abuse awareness is absolutely sickening.  Domestic abuse is a horrible crime and is punishable by law, so why do people feel the need to disrespect their partner and follow through with the abuse? Most people do not realize that words do in fact hurt but yet they still continue to verbally abuse and leave emotional pain on someone for a very long time.

“You are a bitch”, “You are a whore” are usually the main phrases that are used to verbally abuse a woman, these comments do not have to be made by just men for it to hurt, they very well could be used by women as well.  By looking at the rule of thirds on this domestic violence awareness advertisement, the bottom left of the grid is the wound of the soundwave of the word “bitch” on the woman’s upper lip.  Via the same rule, we can see that in the top right section of the grid is a black eye with a wound in the shape of the soundwave of the word “whore”.  Both of these women are very beautiful and show no other visible physical abuse signs such as other wounds.  This means that not all domestic violence is physical abuse and that verbal abuse can harm someone in the same way that physical does.  Also the eyes of the women are both very vibrant colors so they draw attention to anyone that would be to look at the advertisement.  The women’s eyes stare into eyes of the person looking at the ad as if they were saying “help”.  Both of their faces are very blank and look helpless, almost begging for the viewer to do something and help them.  

The words at the bottom of the advertisement should not be overlooked because they spread a very important message.  They read “Words hurt.  You can’t see them but the scars from verbal abuse are real and can last for years.  Don’t suffer in silence.”  No one should have to suffer in any kind of silence from domestic abuse, there is plentiful amounts of sources of people to call or talk to, to get help or get out of the situation.  The soundwaves of the words “bitch” and “whore” are also given to give the viewer an idea of what the soundwave of the words look like while they are depicted as wounds on the women’s faces.  Also, the words in this advertisement are not very big and bold and this is done to probably make them be overlooked, just like verbal abuse is.  Verbal domestic abuse is still abuse nonetheless, but people do not think that it is as severe as physical domestic abuse because it does not leave a physical marking on the human body, but it does, just on the brain.  

“They’re only doing that because they like you.”  A common phrase said by the parents of young girls being bullied by young boys. A source of abuse at a young age could be simply calling a girl a stupid in elementary school, then it could grow to calling a girl a slut in middle school, and then high school to adult it could grow to bitch or whore.   If this is never stopped by the parents of the boy that is bullying girls, it may become a normal habit and continue into his adult life.  If this is not stopped at the source of the abuse, no one could ever know if it will ever stop.   “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” May be true to some extent in elementary years because usually kids do not know any better and will just say whatever is on their mind.  Words do hurt, although the hurt is invisible, the pain and suffering could last a very long time.  We should start educating the children to not say “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Because that is not true because names will eventually hurt in some way.  We should teach them to say something along the lines of “Hey, could you please stop calling me those names, they hurt my feelings.” This is a much better saying because it asks the bully to stop as opposed to the sticks and stones statement where it will only antagonize the bully and make them continue to call names.  If we stop at the source of even the simplest abuse, the world will be a better place where domestic abuse, whether physical, verbal, mental, or emotional is much less eminent.  
