[Garfie]

Originally Posted by jaxie

The idea of tar and feathers simply didn't occur to me and I wonder why it would occur to anyone in this day and age. I can see why that might be offensive but perhaps that's what the person viewing it is making of it? We are not living in times when such dreadful things are done to people of all ethnicities. I have been reading a book about the American war of independence which tells of loyalists to the English crown being tarred and feathered and forcibly exported on ship to England. Tarring and feathering was in fact a form of public humiliation to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. This wasn't exclusive to one race of people and was widely used as mob vengeance.

What Ricky could have done is bared his chest, drawn a little bird on it and made a collage of feathers. He could have chosen to use the pillow to instigate a pillow fight with Frankie. He could have ignored the honey and feathers and just played around with the marker. They could have drawn on each other. He could have drawn a moustache on the frigging zebra! He could have had some fun with the task instead of acting like it was a bad smell and he was too self important to join in.

Yes, you're right here. It was my first thought when I saw the task, and I assumed it might have been Ricky's. You're also right about the practice of tarring and feathering, and I guess my initial impression emerged as I've studied Black American History. As you say, though, it is about humiliation.

I was disappointed that Ricky didn't think of anything else he could do, but if he did make a link with tarring and feathering, this might have affected his thought process and meant he was unable to come up with anything quickly enough. It would have been better to have seen him try, however.