power, privilege, and everyday life.
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30 posts tagged age
I work at a restaurant, and while my (male) boss thanks all of us by saying “thanks kid,” the women also get “thanks hun” and “thanks dear.” Dude, I’m not your daughter or your girlfriend. You can just say thank you or compliment my good work.
“Hey ladies - do you want to be successful at work? Here’s the secret - marry a man who is twenty years older than you!”
The news.
A song I’m listening to refers to a group of people who are all the same age as “men and girls.”
As a child I play with Legos and Erector Sets but am told I should be a teacher when I grow up. As a teenager I help my grandfather repair trucks and work on construction around the house along with a male neighbor. When I make mistakes I am ridiculed as stupid and for thinking like a girl. When the male neighbor makes the same mistakes, he’s forgiven for not knowing what he hasn’t been taught, and told to learn from what went wrong. Made me feel powerless, angry. Like my interests meant less than the gender role I had been assigned.
My doctor diagnoses me with vaginismus, which is a condition which can make penetrative sex painful or difficult. She explains that it isn’t so bad because I am ‘too young to be having sex anyways’ and that one day ‘my husband will understand.’ I really want to be able to have sex, and I don’t appreciate the assumption that I like men or that I desire marriage just because I am female. I wonder whether the same comments would have been made towards a teenage boy. Made me feel judged, kicked while down, misunderstood.
I am in a pharmacy and need something for sports injury. When I tell the assistant that she laughs and so does her colleague. I am 59 years of age and female.
My university is huge on men’s hockey. Tonight an important women’s hockey game is going on, and someone puts up a sign that reads “Girl’s hockey game tonight, make the time to go.” Women’s hockey isn’t a fraction as big as men’s hockey and the sign is meant to promote the team and get people to go to that game, but I can’t help thinking how ironic the sign is. Nobody would ever call men’s hockey “boy’s” hockey. It’s like not even a supporter is taking women’s hockey seriously by calling it girl’s hockey.
“I’ll ask one of the girls to do it.”
An attorney at the law firm I work for. All the secretaries are adults, most of us are older than him. But we’re always “the girls.”
Today, a building inspector at my job described me as a “beautiful little girl.” I’m 27 years old. Made me feel trivial, powerless, infantilized.
My mom says she is okay with my sexuality but doesn’t want me to tell anyone else in case I change my mind. Age: 16
Me to college store clerk:: I have my faculty ID.
Clerk:: Oh, you mean your staff ID.
Me:: Actually, I teach here.
This isn't the first time people have made assumptions based on my age, and it won't be the last, I'm sure.
Living with your parents always presents a raft of problems, which is not made easier when you’re transgendered. For example, their refusal to use your (now legal) name or (now legal) sex when talking to or about you. Despite the fact both have been changed for years.
Thanks for helping with my depression, anxiety, and insecurity! Nice to know I’m supported in the way that least inconveniences you! I shouldn’t complain, though; my sister believes that I’m ‘too young’ to know my own gender and shouldn’t try to transition until she deems me old enough. Makes me feel isolated, and depressed.
Me to college store clerk:: I have my faculty ID.
Clerk:: Oh, you mean your staff ID.
Me:: Actually, I teach here.
This isn't the first time people have made assumptions based on my age, and it won't be the last, I'm sure.
An older white man came into my office to meet with the head publisher and was introduced to me, because I’ll probably be helping to edit his book later on. He said. “My, aren’t you pretty?” and then patted me on the head! I know I look younger than 23, but I don’t look 5. This was in a professional office setting! I felt diminished and not taken seriously as an editor.
