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[jo_graham]

I've had a couple of new comments lately on Black Ships, so if you're just finding my work, welcome! Please feel free to ask questions or comment

Comments

[dncingmalkavian]

That's something I found remarkably refreshing about Black Ships, because yes, that's the way it was in those days.

While I don't necessarily think that modern adults should be wedding and birthing as young as the folk from Black Ships, I think it's a sorrowful thing that we don't expect more maturity from young adults.

[jo_graham]

I think it creates a problem to expect people to be younger than they are. For example, how much effort is spent trying to get teenagers not to have sex? Every natural biological impulse tells sixteen year olds that they're ready while society tries to prevent them. And so we pathologize things that are perfectly natural, and that would have simply been part of growing up in other societies. As the mother of a pre-teen, I feel like there's an enormous amount of energy spent telling especially our daughters that they shouldn't want what they want, or that they're bad or "sluts" if they're interested in sex.

[dncingmalkavian]

I agree. I grew up in a very sex-positive household, and I was never shamed for wanting to have sex or for having it. My mother's attitude was "Be safe, only do what you want to do, and if you get into trouble, come to me and I'll do whatever I can to help you." The scene in which Gull discusses Tia's pregnancy with her, and how it should not shame but empower her, reminded me very much of that.

Have you read "The Purity Myth" by Jessica Valenti? Amazing book about that very topic. I'd like it to be required reading for all adolescents, regardless of gender identity. You and the youngun should check it out!

[dncingmalkavian]

Agreed. That's another thing I liked about Black Ships, as well as Hand of Isis - elders were valued and respected, not shut away and forgotten.

[jo_graham]

That's a good point. We don't respect age as many societies do. And anyone who doesn't appear eternally youthful is blamed for it. "Why doesn't she take care of herself?" My mother gets this for using a cane. My mother is 88.

[kickstand75]

Yup, exactly this, as we've talked about before. Peter Pan syndrome is never a good thing in real life.

[jo_graham]

Yep. And I think a lot of kids desperately want to grow up but are being held back.

[lillibet]

I have a theory that this has to do with the shrinking employment opportunities that our economy is able to provide. When manual labor was a much more intensive part of our lives, there was enough work that children as well as adults were necessary to keep homes, farms, and businesses running

[tricksterquinn]

Interesting thought. And the fact that now people can't afford to retire must be making the whole thing worse, since the workforce doesn't really reliably drop off again -- I know hardly anyone who is no longer working at 60-65, for example.

[jo_graham]

It is, especially as the big hamster through the snake that is the Millennials comes of age. You're at the front end, so most of the hamster is still behind (ok, gross metaphor) but you're being followed by a horde of unemployed kids who outnumber the Baby Boom. And they're all going to need jobs in the next five to ten years.

[tricksterquinn]

Love the visual, thanks.

This is why I really need to cement myself into, if not a job, then a clear niche: because if I don't manage it soon, I am never, ever going to be functionally employed. You read that article a while back about the effect unemployment sustained for more than a few months has for the rest of a worker's life.

What a mess.