Why, that’s not very lady like.

I was sitting side by side with the little girl that I am carer to while she was fiddled with a bunch of farting noises on her computer. “Excuse me!”, I exclaimed. “That’s not very lady like of you”, I continued… then I stopped to think, so what does ‘lady like’ behaviour mean? Why was this my first reaction, even though I was being sarcastic when I said it? Does it still apply to our modern society, particularly considering the saying itself is still being used?

How is it that, without us even realising, society’s perception seeps into our everyday actions? I find it appalling that society pushes responsibility on children and forces them to grow up too fast. I’d rather a 10 year old girl was playing with fart noises, than worrying about her hair, face, body and what she can and can’t eat.

So, in honour of the equality between men, women and children, I have a admission that may be rather embarrassing.

I, as a girl myself, and a human girl at that, am blessed with a working body that is capable of all bodily functions that you can think of. I can almost guarantee that girls including myself, burp, fart, sweat, cough, sneeze, grow hair in places both seen and unseen, use the tips of both our fore and middle fingers to pick out those gnarly boogers and personally fight a losing battle to resist chewing our elongated, gangrene toe nails.

So, to my 10 year old friend I say, fart all you like. I whole heartedly encourage you to continue to hold your finger on the mouse button clicking that fart noise for as long as you like, for who am I to judge your ‘non-lady-like’ behaviours to be anything more then simply the humour and fascination of the child imagination that you dare embrace. And of course, I had a bit of a giggle too.