What's the difference between being mocked or being physically assaulted?

[devilgrrl]

What makes either more exceptable than the other?

Personally, I think they rate about even on the repugnance meter.

[bertha katzenengel]

1. Neither is acceptable, but one is easier to bear than the other.

Which one is easier to bear? Well, YMMV.

For me, I'd rather be mocked. I have never been beaten, but I have been threatened with a handgun. Mockery is a lot easier to bear.

[Blue-Jay]

2. I'd rather get my feelings hurt than be punched in the face.

But, hey, that's just me.

[khashka]

3. The difference is blood

and pain.

They are both repugnant. But there is huge difference between bad words and a broken nose.....


Khash.

[Deja Q]

4. I've had plenty of both.

I won der why I haven't joined 'em yet; if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[arwalden]

5. Being Mocked Can Make Your Blood Boil...

... while being assaulted can make you actually BLEED!

Neither one is ACCEPTABLE, but they are hardly equivalent.

I'd prefer to be red-faced rather than bloodied and bruised.

[asthmaticeog]

6. This is the dumbest fucking question I've heard in ages.

The subject header of this post is mocking you. Shall I knock you down and kick you in the head for comparison? :D

[Blue-Jay]

7. !

[mykpart]

8. My first impulse was to say

that the only difference is that the bruises are less obvious when you're mocked. And while that's true, if you're an adult it is easier to ignore a mocking than it is to ignore a beating.

Now if you're speaking about adult treatment of children, then my first answer applies. Children haven't yet learned to ignore what adults say.

[hfojvt]

12. not always

if, for example, your boss and your co-workers are doing it. Constantly. It is easier to press charges or file a complaint about a beating. At some point I may tire of the constant mockery and hit somebody with a chair. Then I'm the bad guy.

[Orangepeel]

9. how one responds to mockery is within one's control

Since (fortunately) I've never been physically assaulted, I don't really have a basis for comparison. But I've been mocked plenty, and it is hard for me to understand how it could possibly compare to a physical assault.

I can choose to ignore mockery and write it off as being the other person's problem. Someone causing me physical pain is out of my control.

[SOteric]

10. I disagree.

I don't think either of them is particularly fun. And neither is appropriate or acceptable behaviour. But in practical experience, having my person assaulted in any physical way feels far more a violation than any pinhead's verbal barrage. Also, only the physical assault is actually illegal in most cases.

[Floogeldy]

11. For starters, one is illegal.

Not all mocking is bad. Sometimes, it can be a complement. :)

[hfojvt]

15. yet in colonial times

If one mocked another, they could be challenged to a duel and be legally shot or killed.

Even as the incident I have posted a couple times from the 1850s when a US Representative assaulted a senator with a cane in the Senate building for insulting his uncle, and he apparently faced no charges.

Ah, the good old days.

[EFerrari]

13. Only the difference between inside and outside.

:(

[jobycom]

14. You control how much damage mocking does to you.

Eleanor Roosevelt's famous line: No one can insult me without my consent. (I probably mangled that).

Missing teeth and broken noses do damage no matter what you tell yourself. Someone calling you names only hurts you if you let them.