Dad She's Weird

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Erin Jackson, the 2022 speed skating gold medalist from Florida.

What is normal to me might be abnormal to you. That’s why we must be careful what we say around small kids. They embargo things in their mind. We only know what’s in there when they let it out one day: Dad, she’s weird.

What is normal is purely subjective and mostly territorial. What is normal in Saudi Arabia is not normal in LA and vice versa. What is normal in KwaZulu, South Africa is not normal in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and they are in the same continent. Example.  In South Africa, girls become women at a certain age. Until then, they are kids, and dance without anything on top. The British called it bare-breasted. It was to them, because they saw sexual objects. Not in South Africa, what gets men going is something else. 

What is normal is largely determined by culture, religion, urban or rural upbringing, money in the bank and language. The internet has mashed it all up, to come with its own ‘normal’ called trending. That is why Erin Jackson, the first American woman to win an Olympic speed skating gold medal in 20 years, did not in 2022 when she won, but a female rapper with little clothes on has been trending since she slapped another woman on camera years ago.

Parents also determine what is normal. That’s why some mass shooting killers are under 18. Kids remember what is routinely said at home e.g. girls in long dresses, with faces fully covered. Equally, parents that belong to a particular religion must not indoctrinate their kids about how Canadian and American girls dress during the summer. It’s hot. They are free to think like that, but not to verbalize it because it has long term repercussions. Hate and murder.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Blogger Without Borders

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