And what is this?

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We can forgive the girl—she is stupid because she is a child. But the parent in the ad must be condemned. He knows, he flees, he saves his own skin by leaving his stupid little girl in the dust. This is not how a parent with a child responds to danger; this is the correct response. If my reading of the ad is wrong, then I must assume the man is a sexual predator and the girl has been saved by some kind of moral dinosaur.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

22 replies on “The Girl, the Parent, and the Predator”

  8. No no no. You’ve got it all wrong. The girl is BRAVE. She’s defending her cowardly father against the dino threat. She won’t die, of course, and neither will the dinosaur. We can’t have blood and guts in a narrative involving children.

    She will do something unaccountably clever and charming, and T. Rex will be won over and become her friend. Her father will emerge on the last page, a sheepish grin on his face, fully emasculated and clearly the inferior.

  9. Yep, I’m with @8; I don’t get how she’s stupid. Facing the beast is the only way to vanquish it. Sometimes this is real: my sister faced the uncle who had sexually abused her some years before and he shrank from a predator into a pathetic, sniveling mouse. The weight of her shame was transferred directly onto his shoulders. More symbolic beasts, like our fears, can be befriended and diminished that way. But yes, the “authority” figure who refuses to face these things on behalf of those in their care is a treacherous coward, always.

  10. I like the idea of the moral dinosaur, especially when it’s a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

    “RAAAGHH! DON’T TOUCH HER GENITALS! RRAAAAGGHHH!”

    Although the true promise of genetic engineering is to treat disease, I hope that there will be some room left over in the labs of the 21st century for the creation of dinosaurs that hunt child molesters.

  12. @10 I also love the idea of the moral dinosaur! You said it all better than I. This is all I have to add:

    T-Rex is Pedo Bear’s nemesis! RAWR!!!!!!

  16. Or perhaps the coloration provides a clue to an alternate interpretation: The dinosaur is merely an illusion, a shadow darkening the orange landscape to rust. The child is the smart one. She recognizes the illusion. The adult is fooled, overcome by the reflexes of self-preservation that society has beaten into him. Besides, where does he think he’s going to run? He’s about to smash headlong into the edge of the billboard. Acquiring a concussion is not likely to improve his ability to distinguish illusion from reality.

  17. Just to be clear… everyone (except Charles) gets that the joke is that the exhibit is real enough to scare parents, but kids will be fascinated, right? There is no commentary on post-neoliberal pedophiles, or whatever Charles’ permanently stoned mind came up with.

  19. Don’t you all remember the lessons we learned from Jurassic Park? Their vision is based on movement. Dad is heroically drawing Rex away from his daughter, much as Dr. Malcolm diverted the one in the film away from Dr. Grant (a little too successfully, of course).

  21. OR

    The child is unrelated to the adult (can’t check the DNA from here) and is from a different ethnic/religious sect from the adult and therefore is not “human” and worth defending.

    OR

    That thing being held up is a very powerful weapon that requires small fingers to operate, hence the adult gave it to the child and is taking cover because the one not holding the weapon could be injured.

    Lots of speculation here. I like the spin by Charles the best.

  22. The girl knows the dinosaur will not hurt her unlike the adult who thinks the dinosaur is real due to that acid he just dropped.

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