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cremainsI dreamt of a swimming pool filled with green translucent sludge. A few scattered people were sitting around the pool and a few were doing laps in it. The lights were dim. Suddenly, the swimmers began screaming as a gigantic, green anaconda emerged from the bottom of the pool and began tearing them apart. It ate many people and dismembered still more.
On the other hand, as soon as I saw it, I was bowled over by a feeling of happiness and jumped up and started cheering, "ANACONDA! ANACONDA!" The more people it savaged, the more gleeful I was, although also the more frightened I was since I was afraid that the people would take revenge. I kept watching in disbelief, worry, and pride as it evaded the humans' futile blows.
However, real life is actually proving more surreal. M. (age 9) and Y. (age 8) groped my breasts on Sunday, ostensibly to feel how they differed from H.'s (it all started when Y. touched H.'s chest and proclaimed "You're a girl because you have intestines." He didn't know the right word for nipples). I explained when I got groped "It's not polite to touch the breasts of a grownup." They merely cackled and upon learning that the proper term is breasts (shadaiim), Y. began this weird gleeful tirade about how he'd killed my demons (sheidim) but I could never kill his because it would just bounce back on me and then I'd be ALL dead. This might sound like some sort of sexual anxiety but actually it's a very easy transition of words in Hebrew; also he and I talk about demons and fighting each other by summoning strange creatures all the time. So yeah... that was the normal part.
You'd think that since the kids are being raised with a truly fanatical sense of modesty, they would know that behaviour was inappropriate, but in many ways the opposite is true. According to their mom, every part of the body is forbidden, so what makes breasts so different? This manifests in a hundred other surprising boundary issues.
On the other hand, as soon as I saw it, I was bowled over by a feeling of happiness and jumped up and started cheering, "ANACONDA! ANACONDA!" The more people it savaged, the more gleeful I was, although also the more frightened I was since I was afraid that the people would take revenge. I kept watching in disbelief, worry, and pride as it evaded the humans' futile blows.
However, real life is actually proving more surreal. M. (age 9) and Y. (age 8) groped my breasts on Sunday, ostensibly to feel how they differed from H.'s (it all started when Y. touched H.'s chest and proclaimed "You're a girl because you have intestines." He didn't know the right word for nipples). I explained when I got groped "It's not polite to touch the breasts of a grownup." They merely cackled and upon learning that the proper term is breasts (shadaiim), Y. began this weird gleeful tirade about how he'd killed my demons (sheidim) but I could never kill his because it would just bounce back on me and then I'd be ALL dead. This might sound like some sort of sexual anxiety but actually it's a very easy transition of words in Hebrew; also he and I talk about demons and fighting each other by summoning strange creatures all the time. So yeah... that was the normal part.
You'd think that since the kids are being raised with a truly fanatical sense of modesty, they would know that behaviour was inappropriate, but in many ways the opposite is true. According to their mom, every part of the body is forbidden, so what makes breasts so different? This manifests in a hundred other surprising boundary issues.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-14 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-16 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-16 09:24 pm (UTC)