In regione caecorum rex est luscus

When Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536) wrote “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King” [Adagia (III, IV, 96)] his simple statement that set out to describe how knowledge…

Oh bollocks.

I can’t continue with this.

I am troubled my friends, deeply, deeply troubled.

I have this inner yearning to lift my game to a higher philosophical level, a desire to discuss and debate the finer points of human nature and define our drivers and sub-drivers through the reasoned, application of thought process – and have my thoughts laid open to probing peer review.

And yet.

The thing that troubles me takes command.

It grabs hold of the reins of my mind and points it at a much lower plain, instead of the higher place I want to occupy this evening.

The desire to obey my troubled mind wins…

I was driving through Swindon this evening when I passed a pink car that was parked on the side of the road.

Would you know what I meant if I said it was a very girly shade of pink?

Think ‘Malibu Barbie’ and you’re on the right lines.

And inside the rear window were two – matching pink – cushions.

With pink tassels.

Written across the rear of the car (in professional sign-writing) in a much darker shade of… pink… were the words:

Posh Girls Parties!
A Visiting Beauty Therapist for Birthday Parties for Girls Aged 6-16.

Bloody hell.

How wrong is this?

Six-year-olds?

They’re bloody children for crying out loud!

At best they’ll be turned in to hooped-earing-wearing chavs.

At worst they’ll be sexualised.

At six years of age????

I hunted around on the internet for some kind of validation and the only information I could find that related to the (I hesitate to use the word ‘service’) concept is this one.

And this, my friends, is why I’m troubled – on two levels.

The person running this business says:

“Of course I won’t be doing full facials on the little ones,”
and
“This is really to show the youngsters how to look after their skin and to take care of their nails.
and
“The older ones will get the benefit of learning how to put on make up or doing their eyebrows and I will be there for the facials, manicures and pedicures.”

Level 1:

There’s no definition of what is meant by ‘little ones’.

I would put it to you (on both a philosophical and moral level) that children as young as six are too young for ‘beauty therapy’.

And so are children of seven.

And so are children of eight.

And so are children of nine.

I could go on, but for me the line gets drawn at 13 with the onset of the teenage years.

So tell me…

Am I suffering from a massive over-reaction?

Or is the fact that we (in this country) seem to see the sexualisation of children  as acceptable whilst, at the same time, we produce more under-aged pregnancies (and the highest level of pre-teen pregnancies) than any other European country in some way related?
B.