Zap!

Age discrimination isn’t really something I’ve touched on (here or on my feminine blog).  As a person concerned with discrimination in any form, I thought I might talk about it a little.

Age discrimination can affect, well, anyone.  Ethnicity, gender, sexuality-these are things that might change the way the discrimination is portrayed, but people of any identity can be affected.

Age discrimination happens everywhere.  It happens in the workforce, on the street, in the doctor’s office, and in schools/universities.

Age discrimination affects older people, younger people, and everyone in between.

Perhaps the ironic thing about age discrimination is that the discrimination itself is so non-discriminatory when it comes to targets.

Sometimes age can be the determining factor in how a person treats you, or whether or not you get a job.  I recently visited a GI doctor who was used to older patients and was very curt with me.  He may have just been having a bad day (my father goes to this same guy and said he was very nice) in which case I am sorry to be suspicious of personal bias on his part, but it seemed very odd to me that his temperament so drastically changed from working with my father to working with me.  In another example, my mother used to work at a hospital where a younger coworker ridiculed her daily about her age in front of patients and other coworkers.  While this isn’t necessarily discrimination, it is rude, hurtful, and uncalled for, and all because of age.

In some less personal examples, teenagers are often discriminated against because of the hype they get over their active hormones and emotional problems.  We’ve all met that person who feels “anxious” around teenagers.  On the opposite side, senior citizens are often treated poorly because people have it in their heads that all senior citizens are crazy, Alzheimer-ridden coots with diapers.  Of course, with every stereotype, there are those who fit the mold.  There are teenagers who can’t take it anymore and show up to school with a gun.  Go to any nursing home and you’ll find some elderly people in bad shape (after all, that’s why they’re in the nursing home).  It becomes discriminatory and biased when these are fitted to every one of that age group.  Are all teenagers gun-wielding murderers? No, of course not.  Are all senior citizens pant-pissing loons?  Certainly not.  Likewise, not all 21 year-olds are drunks and so forth and so on.

Maybe more on this later…this was kind of just an explanatory rant.  Feedback welcome!

lostgrrrls:

thedaddycomplex:

Read this.

And if you’re a guy, especially a father, who thinks women are too uptight about catcalls and whistles, look at your daughter.

Then, read it again.

katespencer:

I’m writing this on the R train as it rattles slowly along toward Brooklyn. I’m headed to pick up my 6-month-old daughter. I’m writing because I’m still reeling from what occurred on the Times Square subway platform a few moments ago. I was walking to the end of the station as I always do. I saw a man, a stout, balding, nondescript looking troll, staring at me as I walked toward him. I watched as he slowly extended his arm and fingers, in particular his pinky finger, so it would make contact with me as I walked by. I’m wearing a skirt. It all happened quickly, in seconds, as these things always do, and sure enough as I passed him his hand jutted out and stroked my thigh. Without thinking I turned around and hit him as hard as I possibly could. I didn’t even stop walking, nor did I say anything. I did turn around to look at him as I hit him, and his face was one of shock but not of surprise. He knew why I had hit him; he just couldn’t believe he hadn’t gotten away with it.

Ive been sexually harassed so many times since my adolescence that I’ve lost count, but I’ve never reacted like that before. Normally I think, process, choose my words. There was no brain power that went into the decision to smack this asshole; it was pure instinct. As I headed away from him I immediately regretted not verbalizing my anger and yelling at him too, but I imagine that choice was instinctive as well. Besides, I think he got the message.

I am not someone who condones violence. But I’m so tired of my safety and personal space being invaded over and over again. I am a 32-year-old woman. I am a mother. I am not someone you can fondle without my consent because you feel like it, nor is any other girl or woman. Not my friends. Not my daughter.

When I’ve explained sexual harassment to men in the past I’ve been struck at their confusion over why it is a big deal. How is someone whistling at you threatening, they ask? Here is what they don’t understand. Those moments, which may seem insignificant and small, create an unsafe environment in which women are forced to live. Last month, after I yelled at some men in a car who made kissy noises at me, I was terrified to then walk down a quiet downtown street out of fear that they’d circle around in their car and hurt me. These moments force us to operate in a state of fear for. They define who is in control and who can have their control taken away. And I’m so fucking tired of it that I’m starting to snap. I’m now hitting people. Because as much as I want to believe my daughter will not have to live with this same fear 10, 20, 30 years from now, I know that she will. And nothing makes me more sick to my stomach.

I hate how much I relate to this.

It’s a battle of belief - and the right not to believe - in a country founded on freedom.

“I’m a patriotic American. I served my country. I get out there and celebrate the Fourth, too,” Blair Scott, who calls himself a proud atheist, proclaimed.

“This America belongs to everyone.”

Blair, the communications director for the New Jersey-based American Atheists, said atheists in the United States often feel alienated and face accusations of being anti-American because of their lack of belief in God.

To combat those notions, his group is using Independence Day to say atheists love their country, too.

But the way they’re spreading their message might have Americans looking to the sky this Fourth of July and finding something besides fireworks to stir emotion.

Planes with banners that read “God-LESS America” or “Atheism is Patriotic” will be flying over 27 states on Monday. While people might be leery to see the messages overhead, the $23,000 campaign has had a struggle with those who are supposed to bring it to life.

Justin Jaye of Fly Signs Aerial Advertising, who is orchestrating the flights for American Atheists, said out of the 85 people in the country who fly these sign-pulling planes only about 17 have agreed to fly the messages.

“I’ve been in this business for 20 years and I’ve never run into so much resistance on people flying,” Jaye said. “I’ve had pilots who are actual atheists who said, ‘Justin, I am an atheist and I won’t fly it because I can’t wear a bulletproof vest.’”

Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, says the reaction to the organization’s campaign before it takes off shows how much work the group still needs to do. “This is a clear reminder of why we need to keep fighting because the bigotry against us is so thick that a lot of the pilots are afraid to fly our banners,” he said.

The saddest thing about this is that people are afraid to fly these banners because they are afraid of getting shot.  No, scratch that, the saddest thing about this is that those fears are rational.  In recent shootings of doctors, bombings of abortion clinics, and numerous hate-crimes against atheists, it is clear that there are plenty of homicidal “Christians” out there who would have no qualms about killing an atheists because, you know, they’re infidels.  Terrorism, thy name is crazy Christians of America!

excessivebookshelf:

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.

-Frederic Brown

This would also make a great writing prompt.