The term “grooming” has taken on a peculiar political burden in the last few years. Republicans and other evangelicals (are there others?) fling it at LGBTQ+ advocates and allies, not to mention Democrats, shrieking that “they” are all out to turn normal children into abnormal ones, usually in pizza parlors.
When I was a child, I was groomed, relentlessly, in the other direction. My school, my community, and boys yelling from fraternity windows, all wanted me to change from an abnormal girl to a normal one.
For most kids, this begins in infancy. I just don’t remember that. I remember having to wear dresses to school. No choice. Hated that, but it was “normal” in those years. I had to find things to like about school because it was physically uncomfortable.