As much as social media is an easy way to connect with people, it also gives others an opportunity to hide behind the keyboard and say nasty things online.
The topic of having children and getting married is sensitive, and I wish more people understood that before throwing in their unsolicited advice.
There is this trend of policing young women into having kids or getting married when they are not ready by instilling fear in them.
On Sunday, media personality Boity Thulo tweeted, “motho ogodile guys” meaning: “a person has grown”. Some Twitter trolls responded by saying: “Get married, have kids and stop chasing popularity because 40 won't be kind to the childless you.”
Thulo’s response was short and sweet. She said “Kante le fetsa leng go bua mar*te?” Which can be loosely translated as “when will you stop talking nonsense?”
Kante le fetsa leng go bua marete? https://t.co/nzAzp36Dde
— Boity Thulo (@Boity) December 4, 2022
Now, the troll may have been “joking,”, but such jokes are not funny. First of all, not everyone wants to have children or get married.
Second, even if they do, they shouldn’t be policed into doing that before a certain age because anything about their lives is their choice.
You don’t know what the future holds for them and therefore cannot conclude that if they are not married and are childless by a certain age, life will be unkind to them.
And what’s appalling is that such nasty comments are usually thrown at women. Men are hardly told what to do with their lives. Whatever they decide is respected, and I wish the same respect would be extended to women.