Just a random photo with one of my favorite creatures ❤️
Once I will definitely devote a separate post to her eight-paws-majesty (there's actually ten paws, hey!) and to arachnophobia in general, but today this fluffy beauty is a kind of an indirect living symbol for another story which is no less important for me.
Nowadays there is such a fierce struggle with stereotypes...but in its own way each of them remains at least an important life link and an integral part of the chain of narration and / or events. And even if I'd like to run my today's little story into the complicated and detailed point of view ending with words like you need to fight only with what really and 100% harms you (or people near you) instead of clogging your head with gossip, speculation and prejudice, finally I would mired in the impossibility of conveying a thought with a guarantee of being understood and accepted, so...no, definitely not today, as I am already beginning to succumb to the flow of this transcendental mind whirpool :)
Well. According to one of such stereotypes, girls are afraid or should be afraid of mice, lizards and so on. The imposition of this opinion or its manifestation in practice is clearly visible in childhood period. Just look. Here are boys catching frogs and lizards; I suppose a small percentage of mothers will be furiously outraged by this, some may probably just be dissapointed with hygiene issues or feel a little personal shame, as her child is playing with those ugly stinky creatures, as she considers them. And here are girls doing the same... I'm sure you can also hear the discontent and indignation in their mothers' shouting. "You're a young lady! A girl shouldn't behave like that! They are dirty and ugly! You will have warts! It is definitely poisonous!" And so on. Though I understand that it's a manifestation of caring and natural worrying, in many ways it's also a preconceived habit, the good old “it is supposed to be so” reasoning. Even if these mothers learn that warts do not appear from simple tactile contact with a frog, or that poisonous creatures are not so often being nearby, the echoes of parental overprotective behaviour will still remain. It’s neither good nor bad, it's just is as it is and depends only on a certain subjective situation.
A little clarification about the poisonous creatures in case you misunderstood me. I do know there are many places on Earth with small dangerous creatures living close to hyman so people there have to be careful. I just speak about my indignation regarding the fact that I and my peers were obsessively instilled with fear about every unfamiliar little creature, with no reasons or evidence for this, in my country and in some neighbouring ones. And I'm sure there are at least few of similar examples all over the world. While obediently obeying the infinite "parents know better" and "this is right" statements, we considered an ordinary river snake (Natrix and its subspecies) to be a poisonous viper, a small black spider was a deadly black widow for us, cute crane flies, Tipulidae, were told to be dangerous malaria mosquitos, etc... And it weren't only delusions without consequences. You yourself understand that there was a manifestation of child cruelty supported by the opinion of adults. And yes, it's a common thing, but I am still very sad for the fact how many small creatures are being killed simply due to being called dangerous while they aren't so and it's proven and you can learn it easily. As a child, I did not understand why a parent is considered an experiensed and skilled teacher with unlimited knowledge, but he cannot actually cope with his own fears and aggression (I'm still speaking only within the main context), so he teaches us to behave the same way instead of actually helping us with learning the world around us! For some children such contradictions become one of the first parental deceptions. The child is only making its first steps through the valley of life, what you call hyperbolizing meand much more for him than you can imagine. Well, this is our human nature, we prefer to attack first, for us it's safer this way...even if our opponent is not going to attack us and is not actually hostile at all. And against the background of the fact that we have such a feature of our essence and often justify its presence in us, our wishes and aspirations for unlimited love and acceptance sound somewhat hypocritical and insincere. Oh, this eternal dualism.
Returning to stereotypes, I was a bit of a tomboy. I preferred the company of boys, we climbed trees and ran through quarries. I loved all those little reptiles, I even caught lizards for boys because I did it better. I tried to be careful with all these creatures, but of course I wanted to warm them, pet them and play with them. Violent tactile love, huh... I dreamed one day I would be able to befriend all the creatures, or at least many of them, and I would be able to pet them or play together without harming them and breaking their freedom. While people wanted to learn foreign languages, I wanted to be able to really understand what animals and creatures are talking about, even if it would be not actually informative for me. Tiny me wondered why people considered certain animals smart only if they perform something that people wanted them to do. For me they all were smart, even smarter than people, as animals were able to live a simple life obeying the nature's laws without showing off too much :)
P.S. Due to the coronavirus panic, many people considered their pets to be potentially dangerous. Cats and dogs were brutally killed by throwing from the windows of high-rise buildings, or at best they were euthanized. It has been repeatedly proved that for now pets cannot infect humans with COVID, a biased attitude was formed due to prejudice, relying on unconfirmed information or taking individual pieces of information out of context. Your pets love you, you are their best friend, family and center of their universe. It is very bitter to realize that a person is capable of such meanness and cruelty just to save his ass.
P.P.S. I'm sorry that the ending turned out to be sad, here's a lovely fact in return: some types of spiders (like this fluffu lady) are ideal pets for lazy people or travelers. They can do without food and water for a long time, they do not need petting, walking with or training at all, they can be watered once a week as if they are a houseplant, occasionally change the substrate in their terrarium and this is all for the basis. And they are great listeners and do not distract you for nothing ;-)
