Month: December 2011

[tw: ageism, dysphoria, medical oppression]

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

anshinwrites:

kinspeak:

“How can you know anything about your identity when you’re just a teenager?”

“Actually, I’m 30.”

“You must be really immature, then.”

I tried to reblog it and it vanished. O_o

Anyway, as I was saying.  This argument has completely stopped fazing me, because the way I figure, if I’ve known my own identity for longer than the person telling me I’m wrong has been alive, then I’ve kinda got one up on them.

Still, that doesn’t stop this argument from being harmful, if baseless.  It reeks of ageism and perpetuates the idea that when we all become adults, we magically get this book of knowledge about the world and about ourselves, and we’re not allowed to know anything before then.  Hell, I know adults who still don’t have themselves figured out and kids who know exactly what’s up better than anyone else around them.  There is no magic age at which everyone suddenly has a miraculous epiphany.  It happens at a different age for everyone.

One of these days, I have faith that people will learn this.  And then we can move past ridiculous laws that say teens aren’t allowed to have Plan B or that anyone with a uterus who doesn’t want said uterus can’t get it removed until they’re 25 (or have been sufficiently pressured to have a kid/have had a kid) or that young trans* people aren’t allowed to start transitioning until they’re old enough to be absolutely sure of themselves, even if they’ve had crippling dysphoria since they were three.

Until then, this is one of the biggest problems with society—the fact that everything we do revolves around a magic number that’s supposed to define our maturity and knowledge.

I have read two different blog conversations with adults talking amongst themselves about maturity. The general consensus both times is that they stopped feeling more mature around age fifteen. Not seeing the whole “book of knowledge” thing.

And then we can move past ridiculous laws that say teens aren’t allowed to have Plan B

Wait, what? How is that internally consistent? If we accept for the purposes of argument the inferiority of teenagers, then their access to Plan B should be more important. They’re more likely to not realise “Maybe having sex isn’t such a good idea, all in all” until afterwards.

Tags:

#reply via reblog   #ageism   #anshinwrites

Image ~ ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

wellwellthen:

anshinwrites:

runicbasso:

cornerof5thandvermouth:

yeah basically

Or when you go ahead and begin to memorize facts, required by other nations’ emigration department, in case you wish to gain naturalization.elsewhere.

My goal for the next year is to start memorising the emigration requirements/test info for Canada, just in case.  I have plenty of friends in Canada already, and I would like to be prepared in case something horrendous happens at the next presidential election.

(Admittedly, my experience is as a child immigrating, so I might be missing bits my parents did without involving me.)

The test is for citizenship, and thus you don’t need to know it until after you’ve been here for some time*. The tricky part is convincing the U.S. to let you leave. It took us five years (yes, five) to get them to stop stalling. (They were reduced to making shit up. They rejected a form for lack of signature when it quite clearly did have the signature. Also, why do fingerprint records expire (and so have to be re-done) when you still have the same fingers?)

*So I’m told. I was technically a minor when we applied for citizenship, so the test is Not My Problem.

Tags:

#anshinwrites   #reply via reblog   #our home and cherished land

There definitely IS the idea that socialization in speech is better then in writing

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

eateroftrees:

Which is ironic because prescriptivist ideologies generally act like writing is a more PURE form of communication.  But for some reason spend all your time on the internet socializing that way and people will ask you “But don’t you get lonely?” and I’m all “I’m talking to people constantly geeze!”

This.

Sometimes I want a text-to-speech thingy for when I do have to talk. Unfortunately, the stigma would be bad enough if I was completely incapable of speaking. That I merely prefer typing* would probably make it worse.

(Also I’d need a portable gadget that could do text-to-speech. A lot of smartphones and tablets and such can do it, but I don’t have any of those.)

*I can speak using vocal cords and such. More or less. Most of the time the stuff that comes out even carries the same basic gist as what I intended to say.

Tags:

#that excuse for communication called speech   #eateroftrees

Image ~ ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sl0wr:

Remember when Nickelodeon had a game show channel? And sometimes the Preview Channel would show it for a week or two? Good times…

Tags:

#Legends of the Hidden Temple   #Nickelodeon   #my childhood