Saturday, February 24th, 2007 05:22 pm
Kate Crawford and Rebecca Huntley gave an interesting and amusing talk about how attitudes have changed over the last 40 years. [livejournal.com profile] maharetr and I split the book buying, I’ve a shiny copy of The World According to Y and the urge to borrow Adult Themes: Rewriting the Rules of Adulthood.

The notion that adulthood involves getting married, having children and buying a home is an interesting one. I shall add leaving home and getting a job – especially in the light of failure to launch syndrome.

If adulthood is based on such milestones then a vast amount of the population – especially those in a younger demographic, who perhaps don’t wish to have children, are uninterested in marriage (or not able to legally marry) and not in a position to buy into an increasingly expensive property market – will never reach adulthood.

I am briefly reminded of voting rights being assigned on the basis of being a citizen of good standing (male, white, educated, property owning). This concerns me, as it’s much harder to interact successfully with authorities if you are regarded as lazy, apathetic and immature.

I would like to define adulthood in terms of certain types of behaviors, such as ethical decision-making, compassionate behaviour and responsibility for decisions made. This could make a 30 year old living at home rate as more adult than certain CEOs.

It also concerns me from a visualizing our culture perspective as I don’t identify with these milestones and can’t quite see them as rewarding or desirable goals. I’m aware that for a lot of people they are, but you have to sacrifice a lot for them and to many people it’s not an equitable trade.

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