Now that I am finally finished with fall term I have a little more time to write something for this blog of mine. I find it a little ironic that I say I have time and yet I'm writing this blog post at 12 in the morning. Its because of my family, I love them to death, but they require a lot of time from me on vacation and I just can't really write in front of them. But, as a friend of mine once said, that's neither here nor there.
Tonight I want to write about something that has been bothering me for a while, one of my biggest pet peeves: condescension. Whats funny to me is that I can stand this kind of behavior from some kinds of people but not from others. My tolerance for this kind of thing depends heavily on the context and situation. For example, I can stand being treated like a child with my elders, but not with those I deem within my peer group. But condescension in its many forms bothers me and most of the time I find it deeply insulting, whether it happens to me or someone else.
The form of condescension that really touches a nerve for me is the kind where one person talks down to another person because of their status in life; they are younger, older, they are a different sex, marital status, religion, race or education. Tonight I'm going to focus on the age condescension because I feel that is the most relevant to me.
Because I have grown up both looking young and being one of the youngest in my family, there have been many instances where I have been treated differently because of my age and/or lack of maturity. (Note: I am going to use younger and lack of maturity interchangeably). Most of the time this kind of treatment comes from my elders, which, as I have said before, is more or less tolerable. I feel justified for being able to tolerate it from them because in this way I'm being respectful to my elders while at the same time acknowledging that they indeed have more experience than me. But if I'm treated in that way by someone who is in my peer group, I feel extremely insulted and am more likely to lash out.
My reasoning for this sensitivity is because now, I am more and less, an adult, and I strongly feel that I should be treated with all the respect due to someone of my age and maturity.
Will continue tomorrow morning because I'm too tired to write anything more coherent tonight.
