Sticks and stick and stones will break my bones, but words will leave a scar.

Maybe I’m a bit paranoid. I am an English student and an English Lit student so I do spend a good two and a half hours a day looking at words, can you blame me for going a bit crazy?

But I think words, do matter. I think, the ‘N’ word matters, I think calling someone a ‘f**’ matters. Words, when chosen correctly can have a lethal effect. Look at politicians, they don’t just chose their words wisely for fun, they essentially use words to run a country.

Words especially have an effect on us teenagers. How many people have you seen break, because a bully used the right words? How many girls, or guys for that matter, have fallen hopelessly in love because someone said the right words?

My point is that words matter, and our generation especially should be a lot more careful about how we use them. It’s not acceptable, to call something Gay and mean it as an insult, it’s not acceptable use the N word no matter who you are and it is certainly not acceptable to say something with the intention of putting someone else down.
The problem is, we don’t always think. The media, celebrities, the music industry are working hard to make things acceptable, which just aren’t. Because, as far as I’m concerned, to say that it’s acceptable to say something because you are from a particular group of people is just as discriminative as saying it in the first place. And yes I am talking about the N word. But we don’t always think about that. We don’t think about the hundreds of years of colonial atrocities that led to that word, or any word. My roommate for example throws it into sentences like it’s nothing; if I were to use it she would kill me. Why is that not racist? The word is disgusting no matter who uses it!
It’s not just specific words either, it’s the jokes we make, god help us it’s the ‘banter’. I go to a boarding school, and we are ruthless, honestly, all good friends but we tare each other to pieces, and nothing is safe, race, gender, nationality, religion, believe me I’ve had it all, and I’ve given just as good back. But the thing is, I now can’t hear the word Wales without thinking about Sheep. Horrific right. It’s a mild case I know, but the point is if jokes can have that much of an effect on me (a person who prides herself on being strong willed) then what if the non-mild jokes about me being a terrorist because of where I’m from or inferior because I’m a women have worn off on someone else?

To an extent I think it’s important not to put a taboo around anything, I think that you should really be allowed to joke about anything as long as the person you are joking with thinks it’s ok, otherwise you risk putting too much emphasis on certain matters, like race, or sexual orientation, when what we really want is for them to become non-issues.

But I also think it’s important to safe guard ourselves, and our society from discrimination. As long as we are using words that marginalize and discriminate members of our society we will never achieve equality.

So yes words leave a scar, a bully’s taunts can stay with someone forever, but more than that; words scar society in way weapons never could.