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Nobody cares about your age.
ege02
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__BANNED USERS regular
I have been wondering, why is it considered "too personal" to inquire about someone's age?
People seem to find it more personal the older they are.
It's like a fucking taboo to ask or even imply anything about their age.
Seriously, nobody gives a shit if you're 40 or 60 or 200.
I was originally going to mention the taboo of asking about a person's weight as well, but we have had way too many obesity threads lately and I don't want this to go in that direction. However, when I thought about it I found it understandable that asking a person how much they weigh is considered rude, since society stigmatizes obesity.
Does this imply that there is some sort of hidden stigmatization going on about age as well?
Women seem to be even more offended than men when their age (or weight, for that matter) is inadvertently inquired.
Seriously, it seems so self-centered to think that anyone will honestly give a shit about your age. You're 35? So fucking what? Why do you feel like you have to hide it? I can already see you're older than me, so why does it matter whether I know by how many years?
People seem to find it more personal the older they are.
It's like a fucking taboo to ask or even imply anything about their age.
Seriously, nobody gives a shit if you're 40 or 60 or 200.
I was originally going to mention the taboo of asking about a person's weight as well, but we have had way too many obesity threads lately and I don't want this to go in that direction. However, when I thought about it I found it understandable that asking a person how much they weigh is considered rude, since society stigmatizes obesity.
Does this imply that there is some sort of hidden stigmatization going on about age as well?
Women seem to be even more offended than men when their age (or weight, for that matter) is inadvertently inquired.
Seriously, it seems so self-centered to think that anyone will honestly give a shit about your age. You're 35? So fucking what? Why do you feel like you have to hide it? I can already see you're older than me, so why does it matter whether I know by how many years?
ege02 on
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Are you only over 21 for legal purposes? What about non-legal purposes?
.....
In regards to the op though, I don't really know. I've been known to lie about my age when trying to get with an older female, and I've seen women lie about their age to be with younger men. I guess I've never really thought about it too much.
I'd assume it's because people are stupid and vain.
Edit: For that matter, I've seen women lie to get with older men, and men lie to get with younger women, too. Didn't want to get bitched at for that.
Not anymore. It's one of Gore Vidal's big pet peeves.
He's tried as a minor.
Would it be possible to estimate someone's age by asking them how old they are and measuring how offended they get?
underage wimminz
The same reason why I care about where you live, what you do for a living, things like that: making small talk.
What's changed? Surely you've always needed some form of ID for a bank account or whathaveyou.
Also:
Hidden ?? Hahahahahahaha.
Travel, purchasing things, having to give your Social Security # to everyone
Personally, it doesn't bother me, but I think older people do start to get judged on it (and in women's case, you cop all that 'when are you having kids, tick tick tick lawl' bullshit if you haven't spawned by 28 or so). I know my dad had a lot of trouble getting hired when he was between jobs in his late 40's and early 50's, and its only been very recently that employers are starting to value experience again.
Even in England I long since gave up trying to understand all the stuff that people think is personal.
Probably everyone has something they consider too personal to tell, but isn't an issue for others.
I think that it's more of a fear thing probably. (at a guess)
I mean, nobody wants to be reminded that they're that much closer to death.
What sort of travel? I still think it's pretty weird to need your passport to fly within the country. Does the US have the retarded system we do in the UK, where to be authorised to leave the country, you need two signed references from the middle or upper class?
However, with the RealID act, you will need to show your papers to even drive across state lines.
If the RealID act passes, I will be one step closer to moving to Svalbard.
Yeah.
I'm going to bet people don't like to discuss it because then they actually do get treated differently in some way.
Yeah.
Also, M13 will kill your family with machetes and there is a plan to merge all of North America into one country.
Ah, right wing fear campaigns.
Why? Well, it's easy enough to guess. In a culture that so endorses thong underwear and Girls Gone Wild, and indeed, in a culture where so many women endorse and even participate in such activities, it's no wonder that women want to appear young. They are after all, in the eyes of the great orgy of consumption that is America, products. They are to be consumed for male sexual pleasure, essentially. That's where our society's at, now. Stripping, porn, it's all gone totally mainstream.
And this isn't liberated sexuality, it's just consumerist sexuality. It's women performing for men -- it's really got nothing to do with what women want or anything like that. Much as some people might claim, showing your tits for GGW doesn't advance women's plight in western culture. Sorry.
No, instead we have a culture that relentlessly pressures women to expose themselves, so that the male eye may casually consume them -- you know, like how men used to need to go to a strip club to do. Women are pressured to be exhibitionists, and to be an exhibitionist, you need to look good. No one wants inferior merchandise, after all.
Why are women afraid to reveal their age? Because our culture is well and thoroughly fucked when it comes to how we assess a woman's value to society. That's why.
If you didn't care about anyone's age, you wouldn't ask for someone's age. And if you're just blathering on as "small talk," let me give you some advice: don't bother. "Small talk" doesn't necessarily mean "nonsense." You can actually have a conversation about things you want to converse about during "small talk."
I see no reason to talk about things I don't care about and frankly, I don't believe anyone else ever does either unless they are outright lying. Like, people joke about the weather as a conversational topic. Sometimes I'll mention the weather. But when I do it's because I have a genuine comment about the weather. It's still smalltalk, though.
So, if you don't care about a person's age, don't ask.
As to why people might get offended by the question? Because it's personal. Individuals have different thresholds on what is "too personal" to discuss with someone they don't know. I'll happily tell anyone my age. I won't discuss my fourth nipple or the fact that I become a werewolf every full moon, though. Other people have other boundaries. Age is one of those topics that falls on either side depending on the person.
Meh, I dont know that much about the issue, to be honest. Read bits and peices about it mainly on slashdot. Which we all know is like Fox News of the open source community. Svalbard is basically my go to country should America ever go 100% down the crapper, rather it be fascist police state, or total anarchy.
Also, its MS13.
Ah the male gaze speech. I feel like I'm in Feminist Film class all over again.
Remind me to put a bullet in my brain.
No, he's right Cat. We're consumers. We eat young women like pudding cups.
Wait.
You know what? If you really think he's wrong, present an argument as to why instead of making snide comments and waving the fine arts and feminism around like liberal boogeyman (no really, what audience are you trying to trigger by using codewords stolen from Rush Limbaugh?). Your comment is wholly worthless by itself.
I think it's a also something of a self perpetuating ideal. Like the whole big breasts thing. Seriously guys don't care. Yet for some reason the media and everyone seems to go under the assumption of "OMG BIG BOOBIES GUYS LOVE THAT".
Same goes for age. Most guys really don't care nearly as much as everyone seems to assume we do.
Having said that, and being a male of age 19, God Bless America!
Oh yeah, most of this shit has a life of its own. Memes are the devil.
Its funny, I see a role for government here that would have a lot of you screaming about social engineering. The state government here ran an ad campaign extolling the virtues of older employees because there was a lot of subtle age discrimination going on, and its apparently made quite a difference in hiring practices.
You need a government-issued picture ID to fly within the U.S.
*runs away crying*
In the UK a little while ago, age discrimination was made illegal. In the same sense that sex and race discrimination are illegal; ie, mostly when hiring. How's that in Aus and the US?
Hey now, that's not true at all.
You're not that good at snide putdowns.
I'm pretty sure it was written into the main anti-discrimination laws passed during the 70s.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. You win this time, U.S.A.