That isn't ageism you got there, I'm afraid. It's just the girls being intolerant of anyone who likes different stuff to what they think they should like and who find amusement in telling you what they think. Say - if you were reading a text book unrelated to that class rather than a comic book they probably would still think mean things about it.

My mum has told me i'm too old for birthday cakes and advent calendars for years now. But that isn't ageism either, it's just not wanting to/having time to get such things.

Ageism affects every age. Babies wail. Elderly people are slow walkers. 18-25s are always drunk*. Everyone is guilty of it no matter how saintly they think they are. It's a part of stereotyping. For instance - you won't expect a middle aged woman, say around 42, to jump on a shopping trolley/cart and slide down a shopping isle on it would you? That's something kids and teenages and 20-somethings do, right? She'll be too sensible to! But it happens! I saw a lady do just that and it made my day with how unexpected and cool it was.

Of course, there are much less cool examples, such as employers avoiding to employ people over 50 thanks to their ages. These are the more serious forms of ageism, especially as the older people tend to have more experiance.

*

(ps, full stops don't always go in sets of threes you know!)

Switch to books. It's hilarious when I'm flipping through a redwall book and someone asks if it's "latest trendy author"'s last book. In some veiled attempt to make people think they read something besides the funnies. I love flipping the thing up to reveal a mouse with a sword and watch them try to NOT look like a douche.

On topic. Why care? It sounds like a group of "Debbie's" screwed with you and you didn't have a retort ready. Here let me lay one out for you.

Debbie 1: hehehe, he's reading a little kid's book.
You: It's a book not a pie. How would you know?
Debbie 2: Kids books are easy!
You: You know you look like your mother in this light. Wanna go out tonight?

As a rule you are good with assuming any good looking high school girl in a group of the same is going to be easily frustrated when met with retorts not consisting of drooling and/or chest thumping.

Oh and if you want to move on to Bastard level retort? Agree with them and apologize for offending them and offer to make it up to them. This can be with things from chocolates laced with some manner of lulz inducing potion. Or doing their homework for 10 dollars for the rest of the year. (This of course can be paid for by copying down their debit card information for processing later.) Or a simple handshake. Chocolate Pretzel?

Spot Edit: Oh and to make you feel better. My users tend to FEAR pissing me off. I could watch Teletubbies and they'd say nothing. The last time my cousin tried to be smart. I did unspeakable things to his printer. Go into I.T. you will be bitter and stressed, but NOONE will want to try to screw with you.

~Rico

I agree with Rico, and have in fact done something of a similar nature, although, my retorts tend to make me look like a lunatic...

Well its not that I care...I just think its kind of silly for people in this day in age to steryotype...Of course theres a lot of silly things people do? But I was mainly Reffering how People Put lables on things and say how some one of a certain age/gender should/ should'nt like do certain things...I think its just silly

PS...GOod for you Trudi..I too have managed to keep off the bottle of 17+ years as well. LULZ!

But labeling is fun! Dubs even gave me a cute nickname! Prairie Ni-i-i-i-...um... well anyway. I lost the battle with the bottle at 27 years. But let me tell you the combo-breaker that did it was not to be believed.

Nothing beats being yourself that forcing others to accept you under threat of physical, mental, or other sort of harm.

~Rico

'A growing problem'? I see what you did there

What? no witty 4chan pic?

~Rico

i think you have the wrong person

What? No witty 4chan pic?

What? No witty 4chan pic?

Yes, thanks for repeating what Rico just said. Anyway, I can relate to your situation Legion. I've also experienced the same kind of bulls**t as well. Like you, I'm also a massive fan of anime/cartoons, mangas (and comic books in general), video games and hell, I collect the odd action figure from time to time too. I'm 20 years old, but I don't think one's age should determine what their hobbies and pursuits should be. If any people say otherwise, then I personally think they're a bunch of elitist pricks. Ignore them. I couldn't care less if society thinks an adult is childish or whatever for having hobbies that are stereotypically categorised as generally belonging to a child. F**k society. Live your own life Legion, let no-one else try to live it for you.

The MoFo is proof that age doesn't matter.

I dunno if that's discrimination as much as it is stereotyping. "[adjective]-ism" usually refers to discrimination based on said adjective, like racism or sexism. And to some people, "comic books" ARE for children, and you AREN'T one, so it seems odd. Granted, it just means they don't understand context, but it's how it came off to them. Ageism would be more like saying, "I don't think old people should be allowed to drive." rather than thinking someone is too young or too old to like something.

And, to what Rico said: I can't read any "thick" book without being asked if I'm reading Twilight. My god, I'm sick of being asked if I'm reading that book. I do realize that book probably introduced the concept of a "big book" to a lot of people, but you'd think more would understand that there are other books out there, some of which are actually good. And I find a smile and some sort of condescending remark to be much more immediate in effect.

Well, age stereotyping does seem to be more accepted than other kinds. Some of the things often said about "teenagers" are things there'd probably be a stronger reaction to saying about "black people..." or even in terms of sexism, when it comes to the idea of having the age of consent being higher for males than for females, sure the notion that girls mature before boys do is a "generalization"; but to some extent, so is the notion that younger people are less mature than older people, and these rules are hardly individualized to begin with when someone of age of consent having sex with someone barely below it would technically be more of a crime than a much bigger age difference involving both partners above it. I can't help but think which generalizations get labelled acceptable or taboo isn't based so much on their scientific validity but on what social norms or social movements or whatever would have to say about them...

But anyway, I remember coming across this list in my media teacher's office in grade 11. It's bad enough that it claims school doesn't teach things that it does (at the time my economics teacher was repeatedly reminding the class that we can't expect life to be fair, etc... and the "smoking does not make you look cool" thing was repeated constantly through health classes through elementary and middle school) and futhermore I wonder what the author bases part 8 on... but what I find more offensive than that is how presumtuous it is about what the opinions of the people it's talking about are, just based on their age. (And on top of that, how condescending it is based on the same thing...)

As for the "kid stuff" label, yeah, who gets to say what people of a certain age "should" or "shouldn't" do, and why? I remember when I used to go to the System Wars board on GS (glad I haven't gone there in a while) I'd notice a lot of people saying that certain games were "kiddy" (ie. not M-rated) and I find it ironic that the same is often said about video games in general; it seems as if they don't see the similarity. I guess you couldn't expect them to when the group of people you're talking about is those who throw the "kiddy" label around so loosely anyway...

I do admit that a lot of people use "kiddy" to mean "not M rated," but don't use the two interchangeably. I've played a lot of E-rated games that aren't "kiddy." I'd define a "kiddy" game as something that tends to insult the intelligence of mature audiences, not something that simply doesn't cater to them.

I do admit that a lot of people use "kiddy" to mean "not M rated," but don't use the two interchangeably. I've played a lot of E-rated games that aren't "kiddy." I'd define a "kiddy" game as something that tends to insult the intelligence of mature audiences, not something that simply doesn't cater to them.

I'm talking about within system wars, or what seems to be the more common use of the word there. I meant more so as an example of people calling something kid stuff when the same is often said about what THEY'RE doing. I do agree though that some "kiddy" styles can feel a little awkward if they go overboard on it (such as the lullaby-style music and singing flowers in what I've played of Yoshi's Island) but there's a difference between that and moderate "kiddy" styles that can be child-friendly without needing to be, well, "child-centric" I guess...

Not sure what you're referring to as insulting players' intelligence though...

Ageism has been going on since before I was born, and I'm probably the oldest person here.

Ageism has been going on since before I was born, and I'm probably the oldest person here.

Hmm? How old are you?

But yeah, of course it would've been going on for a while, I doubt it's specifically recent. I get the impression that it's probably part of human nature; I haven't done enough psychology to know, I'm just saying that it seems apparent to me, and I wouldn't be surprised if there turned out to be some evolutionary explanation of it.

Also, even within the notion that younger people generally think a certain way and older people generally think a certain other way, who's to say the older person's way is necessarily better? They'd have been brought up longer ago, so they would've been in school longer ago, and their education would've been less up to date than ours. Plus, they'd probably be more used to how things were longer ago, so if anything you'd think the supposed "older person's way" would've been less fitting to modern day. Reminds me of when my mom was telling me about some job at the library of tutoring old people on how to use computers...

Forty-six in April.

Forty-six in April.

abSeamiller claims he's 86, though granted that doesn't mean he is...

I AM as old as I claim to be.

Hell, I still get this NOW. I'm 24 freaking years old and I can't watch or talk about my hobbies without being looked at and being asked why I'm still doing such kid things, and to "grow up". I still sometimes get it out of my brother, of all people, though I snapped at him last time he pulled that stunt on me. (And not "snapped" in a crazy internet tough guy rage, but just pretty much spewed out all the corrections to all the things he thinks of x to y, for example).

Outside of work, anyway. Thankfully, everyone in GameStop is some sort of geek in one way or another. I may be into anime, but the other guy can't talk because he may be a huge Heroes nerd, and my crazy football fanatic ASM can't say jack, either, because we just call him a nerd whenever he goes into his football ramblings. It's great.

Forty-six in April.

abSeamiller claims he's 86, though granted that doesn't mean he is...

Pretty sure he IS, dude. Look at his display picture!

Losing the ability to enjoy certain things as you get older sounds like depression or a brain tumor to me.