A few weeks back, one of the women in my office announced her disdain over the studded collar that her nephew had received as a Christmas gift. Suggesting that this 18 year old was wearing something that "was for a dog", she just couldn't get her head around it. She was, in fact, quite upset about it.

I thought her reaction a little unreasonable having worn some pretty strange goth-style items of clothing in my past. I figure it wasn't like it was a tattoo or some unconventional piercing so, it wasn't all that big a deal. Still, she couldn't (or wouldn't) get over it. I even suggested that I would take her shopping sometime to check out what the young people were into. She declined my offer.

Now, I don't really like to bring culture into this because I know that there are many conservative people all over the world however, I think part of this woman's dilemma was that she's originally from another country. I suppose that she didn't see much of that kind of thing when she was growing up and thus doesn't really have anything to associate it with. It must be difficult when not exposed to certain things. I mean, I would never really be that happy about eating snake and that's just because I didn't really grow up with it.

I hadn't thought about this since it happened but then today I was reading a story on the Reuters site. Entitled "Pet" girl kicked off bus for wearing leash, it tells of a girl who was kicked off a bus by the driver for being "leashed" to her fiance. I was surprised that this happened in London where it wouldn't be entirely unusual to see people like this all over the place. There were apologies and statements by the bus company that said the driver cited safety issues for both the girl and those around her. However, I think that could have been explained to the passenger instead of being told by the driver "We don't let freaks and dogs like you on."

I suppose this all goes to show that it takes all kinds...