Is There Any Difference Between Spanking Children & Raping Women?

“I believe it is high time we quit normalizing physical abuse against the bodies of children as love. It is anything but.”

As an American black woman born to West Indian parents, from childhood I was introduced to a culture where spanking children was the norm. The parents and elders in our community lived by this ancient proverb: spare the rod, spoil the child. Growing up in church, I witnessed how no one batted an eye whenever a parent escorted their child outside of the sanctuary’s walls to discipline them by way of the leather belt attached to their ironed trousers.

Usually, if anyone was to attempt to strike another grown adult in this way the cops would be called. Then again, it was completely normal for husbands used to slap and smack their wives back in the day, the same “good ole days” so many hopeless romantic women long for in this modern age. But for some reason doing this same act to a helpless child who cannot defend themselves is considered a-okay. And I have yet to understand why this act should not be considered a damn crime.

Age nor reason like discipline, punishment, or child rearing should not be a factor when it comes to harming another human being outside of self-defense.