Things and times change eeh? Take the picture-taking thing for example. First time most people, especially females, would stand and face the camera when posing for a picture. Some would stand or sit at an angle or turn sideways for a profile shot. Those days gone!

Nowadays when they're readying-up to take a picture, most girls pose by turning their backs and then tilting their heads around to look at the photographer. Why? Why every girl nowadays seems to want to take pictures by inviting the camera to shoot them, from behind? What's with this 'back way' thing?

'Back WAY' ATTITUDE

And they take the same 'back way' attitude on to the dance floor. When I was a youth, a young miss would stand upright and face you when you ask her to dance with you. You could look her in the eyes while you hold her and dance with her; whether it's the waltz, 'rock and skank' or 'rub-a-dub'. Of course there were the cases where either party might find out that his or her dancing partner had an active martial arts kind of breath, or a face that is a challenge to look at. In those cases, you rest your face on the person's neck/shoulder, look the other way, and hope that the song dun play. But anyway you check it, people used to dance with each other more 'up-front'.

Bend backways

Watch dem young people these days though. The youth man asks the sistren for a dance and what does she do? She turns her back and bends over and he dances with her from 'back way'.

And every now and again she might tilt her head around to remind herself whom she is dancing with.

Of course, if she is one of the fit ones who can bend all the way over, she usually ends up looking at her dancing partner upside down. Hear me nuh man, I see man take his lady to the club or to a party these days and dance with her 'back way' all night. Dem 'slow wine' to rhythm and blues tunes, dem 'jook and wriggle' to soca, and when selector fling dung some dancehall style, dem unleash di 'daggering'. But at no time does she ever turn to face him. And he seems OK with it. Not I star. how can I take a lady on a date and she's scared to face me? After a nuh me name 'Phantom of the Dancehall'!

Very risky

Then there are cases where women get wild in the dance and men rush up and start wining while she's bending over. I think that's very risky if neither party saw the other's face before. You can't judge a book by the back page; anything could happen when the lady turns and the two faces connect. Somebody could die from a heart attack, either from the shock of seeing a much- too-ugly face or discovering that you wining with the wrong person's person.

This obsession with doing things 'back way' seems like the order of the day - and night. People take it into their bedrooms too. Maybe it's the influence of porn combined with the urge to imitate other animals. Isn't it strange? We're superior to other animals and except maybe for the monkey we don't see them trying to imitate us. You'll never for example, catch a dog trying to do things 'human style'. But we seem fixated on doing things 'doggie-style'. Are we regressing? Or are we just moving forward back way?

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