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May 19, 2004 “According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute (a nonprofit organization focused on sexual and reproductive health research, policy analysis, and public education): No, this isn’t a column on abortion. But reading those statistics made me realize how much ageism is still influencing us. Ageism is discrimination based on the age of the individual. At twenty-seven, my teenage years are not that far behind me, and I feel it more deeply when it is practiced against teenagers. You see, once I was a victim of ageism. I must have been about fifteen, and applied to one of those correspondence writing schools. I was rejected because they required students to be “eighteen so they would have the necessary vocabulary.” I know now they were just interested in the student being able to pay for the course, but that’s not the excuse they gave. How that rejection rankled. They hadn’t even seen a writing sample. I hadn’t needed to study for a vocabulary test since the fifth grade. I was only slightly mollified the next summer when my reading comprehension level was measured at the college level. Finding books that can teach you how to write without any strings other than the initial price of the book finished helping me get over it. But when I see someone’s age held against him or her, it reminds me of that pain. Why does the media insist on painting all teenagers the same color? That all teenagers are evil hellions killing and whoring while listening to satanic music. Then they go leave their babies, the consequences of their actions, in dumpsters, with their parents to raise, or get an abortion. They are all plotting to commit another Columbine. Statistics do not support this view. A quick search with Google and I found three sites showing the numbers of how violent crime among teenagers is going down. (http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/usviol.txt, http://www.violence.neu.edu/publication2.html, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/adducr/age_race_specific.pdf) That took about fifteen minutes with my slow dial-up modem, and you’re going to tell me a big shot reporter cannot find those same sources? It couldn’t be that they would want to deliberate skew the facts in order to sensationalize the news? Why would they want to do that? My only guess is that it sells more because adults feel the world is out of control and teenagers are another species they cannot hope to ever understand, the universal fear of the Other. Don’t misunderstand me; violent crime should not be excused because of age. While the total numbers are going down, they are still too high for anyone to feel comfortable with. The savageness of the crimes should be addressed as well. People are always quick to point and assign blame. It’s the music they listen to. It’s the video games they play. It’s the television and movies they watch. Morals are declining. Liberals have ruined everything. Satan is busy, and the end of the world is here. Has anyone considered that maybe it’s because of all the negative stereotypes that ageism has encouraged society to dump on teenagers? How often are teenagers singled out for national attention for the good they do? And when that happens, how long does it stay in our attention? Which do we consider the aberration: the good kid or the kid that kills? How long are we going to let this discrimination continue? ------------ About the author: Kindra Coates is proof that one can be employed with a B.A. in Liberal Arts, just not with what you want to be doing. So she uses the Internet to release her creative frustrations. You can see samples of her fanfiction and nonfiction writing at her website The BookWorm's Library. She also designed and manages The Alt. Biker Mice Site. Email: kindra_coates@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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