Boogie Woogie nightmare

So, I'm flipping channels lazily on TV the other day and I start watching Children's Boogie Woogie - where pre-pubescent kids, some I believe as young as five are dressed up in glittery clothes and dancing to the latest hindi film songs with parents and the crowd cheering them on. Is it just me who finds this trend deeply disturbing? Isn't this overt sexualisation of our children a bit too early. Because let's stop for a minute and not pretend this is innocent fun and that I'm a prude.
Dance is a beautiful, life affriming activity, something that comes to all of us naturally, and I love doing a little jump and jig with my two year old to my favourite 80's pop hits. I'm not degrading the foot-tapping music of Bollywood here - god knows I love doing my little booty-shaking number too, when called upon.
So, lets look at all the ways in which the public display of this energy and talent is wrong - for one, it builds up too much pressure on young bodies and minds with parents goading their children into this competitve arena. The dance competition judges often play to the galleries with their harsh comments and criticism, which can be devastating to an adult so imagine a pre-adolescent with self-esteem that is purely dependent on adult approval. I read in one newsreport, about a dance competition, on a Bengali television channel where the judge's comments led to a young participant committing suicide.
Two - Our children are not safe anywhere - when I read newspaper articles about child abuse prevention and to teach them to distinguish between good touch and bad touch; about seven year girls being raped, is it really best to make mini clones of our highly sexual Bollywood starlets with make-up and tight shimmery dance costumes? I mean, how do you know that every member of the audience is there to encourage these enthusiastic children and not preying on young bodies, how can we be sure that the gaze is friendly, not lecherous? The most common defence for rapists have been to say the woman led him on - with a provocative glance, with her clothes, with her walk. These children are ironically doing all that with no awareness of the sexuality on display, laying themselves wide open to abuse.
Three - this is a sheer diversion of energy. At the risk of sounding super-ancient, when I was in school, we wore our tomboy badges with pride, we played sport the minute school was out and dropped into bed exhausted after a good game of football or tennis. Diverting children into dance, means there is not enogh focus on sport which in itself is a shaming sign of our times and that we are too lazy to make the effort to get out and play for the joy of it; sport teaches us so much more than just how to play a game. About team-work, about healthy competition, about being outdoors and in nature, everything a dance competition is not.
So, while I know that Amelia likes to bop her head to 'desi girl', I'm not enrolling her in Irfan's Bollywood kid's club anytime soon.

wedgewood gone

I obsessively love wedgewood - the pottery company that makes that famours blue and white glazed pottery pieces. I didnt collect as much as decide that my late grand father-in-law would have loved for me to have the few pieces in his collection and righteously sneaked them away in the middle of the night ( well, more like mid-afternoon on a quiet weekday) when we were told we had to leave the house.
I proudly serve tea in the funky purple and turquoise ringed tea-set even though its chipped a tad from the inside and has seen better days. So i'm very upset to learn that the company is folding over.


Maybe now is a good time to pick up more pieces. They'll be collectors items very soon.