Well, but a lot of the time, whips are used to make the noise, and the noise only, to startle. Alternately, whips are used, without making the noise, to sting the skin of cattle and make them react.

I don't think very many cowhands intentionally crack their whips and carve chunks out of their cattle, because (a) hello to the infections and inferior meat and (b) a bellowing, rageful cow is nobody's friend.

I think also that cattle have much thicker skin than humans (which would explain why briefcases are not made of people skin). So, it hurts a cow less to be hit with a whip than it does a human. Same again with cattle prods. In both cases, I would call them herding tools, until they were being used on me.

Also, I'd be pretty startled if I sprouted a bullet hole too, so I'd argue that they're both pretty startling, properly used.

I think that the Dean Cain series is something about a baseball team.

He plays a pro baseballer who be-friends and possibly (memfault) adopts the new orphan batboy. (Not that kind of batboy.)

(b) a bellowing, rageful cow is nobody's friend.

I dunno. Sometimes they run and crash into things in amusing ways.

In both cases, I would call them herding tools, until they were being used on me.

Do guns firing rubber bullets fall under this exception?

Mostly when I think of whips outside the bedroom I think of recalcitrant slaves strapped up and beaten, so I don't need (or want) one to be used on me to appreciate their potential for death and damage.

It's kinda how you're supposed to do it. Not startling. Appropriate.

I tend to think whips have more of a nudge, nudge, wink, wink place in the public consciousness rather than a "you could put an eye out with that thing" kind of place. What was the last mainstream movie where a whip was used primarily as a weapon, rather than a threat? Even the Indiana Jones movies generally used the whip as a batbelt.

Also, I'd be pretty startled if I sprouted a bullet hole too, so I'd argue that they're both pretty startling, properly used.

Startlingly lethal, though? You'd really think "Wow. A gun killed a person. Didn't see that coming!"

not even a Christina Aguilera corset dress joke?

Well, I know what my nightmares tonight will be about.

Startlingly lethal, though? You'd really think "Wow. A gun killed a person. Didn't see that coming!"

Actually, if I thought anything, it would probably be "FUCK! I've been SHOT!"

if I thought anything, it would probably be "FUCK! I've been SHOT!"

So most lethal weapons are startlingly so, then? As long as you are the one in jeopardy?

Your initial post wasn't from the victim's POV, so I didn't realise that's what you meant.