Tough article about the social effects of aging.
https://theconversation.com/tiredness-of-life-the-growing-phenomenon-in-western-society-203934
I tell you, this strikes me in bone-deep fears and anxieties.
Tough article about the social effects of aging.
I can handle dying. We all die. What I can't handle is a society that increasingly wants me to die. I can't handle it as a trans person and I can't handle it in terms of getting older.
There is such sheer, sneering contempt out of so many people for anyone over the age of 35 and it makes me feel isolated and alone.
Tough article about the social effects of aging.
Every time someone goes on about how everyone over a given age point has outlived their usefulness, I go "well, that counts me out" more and more often, year by year.
And the people they interview know it. They know that they're seen as an embarrassment and a burden. Society's told them that they have nothing left to give.
Tough article about the social effects of aging.
And there's only so much fuck-you I can keep in my system before I start to believe it, you know?
I tell myself that all getting older means is that I'm wiser and smarter. I tell myself it's a good thing that I'm growing as a person. But it's me versus a world that tells me otherwise, and the support network for people middle-aged and older who feel this way? Far as I can tell, it doesn't exist.
Tough article about the social effects of aging.
I suppose maybe I could hang around fewer people who go "oh, I didn't mean YOU..." when they honk on about this shit.
re: Tough article about the social effects of aging.
@Charlotte Oh... yeah. There's a lot here;
* I empathize with the seniors here. I saw how my grandparents died and that's not something I'd wish on my worst enemy. Currently my mother's mobility is nearly gone, so that's a fear, too. And a built in part of my age group was always being dismissed, so that's a thing too. I grew up learning who I was could easily be made not to matter when convenient; I'm only now starting to think my worth or simply my worth as *a person who happens to be alive* is more nuanced and basic than that.
* So I definitely get you about the online crankiness - especially given my hate-on for Boomers I can see where it comes from, but outside of my personal whatever it comes very close to other "well fuck those dudes" I've already lived through.
* Honestly this society doesn't offer any real ideological support for aging. You're SUPPOSED to have married, had kids and made a comfortable living off a career at my age, but surely I'm not the only person who's ever fallen through the cracks? And even if I lived up to that it's not much guidance for daily and existential stuff, and is largely someone's marketing gimmick the same way maleness is. Like a lot of adulthood I'm going to have to cobble together a "how do I deal with my relevance in life and losing friends" out of Buddhism, CBT and whatever all else I can get at.
Anyway that ran way long; thank you for your patience on this...
