View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: Jowaine Parrott
Dear AnnezaRe: Jowaine: I take it you have it about the first name and not the last name.Her mother thought she was expecting a boy (those were the days before sonar and I doubt if she would have been able to afford it anyway) and started to call the child Wayne even before the birth. When the child was born and they discovered it was a girl, they registered the name as Jowaine in order to make it sound more feminine. But all through her childhood years she was known as Wayne or Wainie. People in the neighbourhood where she grew up in Ida's Valley, Stellenbosch still call her by one of those names.Parrott is her married name and have two children. So for all practical reasons you can see she is totally female and when she was at the height of her career some said she was one of a few top female athletes that looks feminine.Something besides the name Jowaine, but still with names:I was a teacher for eighteen years at so-called Coloured schools and a "white" school and discovered that those with funny names are more loikely to excell in especially sport. The name give bullies and other children a ready-made target as a departure point for harassment and they have to defend themselves from a young age and thus developing a bigger fighting spirit than they would otherwise had if they were named Ann or John. This of course is only a hypothesis I have developed from personal observation. No scientific research and statistics went into it.Remember in a so-called Coloured community names like Enrico, Bronwyn (can be used for girls as well), Dewey and Hendrik (Afrikaner name)are funny sounding names and easy to poke fun at.
vote up1vote down

No replies