Age ambiguity
Apr. 1st, 2003 09:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonI just ate some cottage cheese, and wished I hadn't; the cold bothered this molar I've been trying to ignore. Yes, it looks like I can't put off going to the dentist much longer, Scary and Bad (and Expensive) as it may be.
Being tired can get me thinking about some slightly odd things--today it's age ambiguity. Besides a few I've run into in person, recently it's seemed that all I've needed to do is stay logged into any IM software with a modicum of basic info available in my profile, and every day new guys with a median age of 21 want to chat me up. This is particularly true of Yahoo, where I set up a subsidiary profile with a photo, partially to see what would happen (I tend to avoid making them public). From the response to this, in particular, I have to wonder about the response to/appeal of age ambiguity.
In my case, this seems to work two ways. I'm one of those people who looks much the same at 28 as at 16, and that perceived age is borderline for being carded buying alcohol. My mother was laughing about this when I went out with Alex, actually. The other is less immediately obvious: I understand that I sound, and sometimes tend to act, younger than I am. This anachronism is probably obvious in conversation. Along with this goes the fact that, due to some unusual circumstances, I was pretty isolated for several years there, and feel almost as if I suddenly came to as a far older person chronologically. (In some ways, it may be extremely appropriate for me to go out with younger people, because our social adjustment might be a better match; I basically missed much of my early 20s.)
I suspect that this touch of ambiguity has been holding some appeal, and it made me wonder about age ambiguity in general. This isn't really something I'd considered much, but it seems to fall within the liminal as well as gender ambiguity or anything else which comes closer to mind. Any thoughts on the matter?
Being tired can get me thinking about some slightly odd things--today it's age ambiguity. Besides a few I've run into in person, recently it's seemed that all I've needed to do is stay logged into any IM software with a modicum of basic info available in my profile, and every day new guys with a median age of 21 want to chat me up. This is particularly true of Yahoo, where I set up a subsidiary profile with a photo, partially to see what would happen (I tend to avoid making them public). From the response to this, in particular, I have to wonder about the response to/appeal of age ambiguity.
In my case, this seems to work two ways. I'm one of those people who looks much the same at 28 as at 16, and that perceived age is borderline for being carded buying alcohol. My mother was laughing about this when I went out with Alex, actually. The other is less immediately obvious: I understand that I sound, and sometimes tend to act, younger than I am. This anachronism is probably obvious in conversation. Along with this goes the fact that, due to some unusual circumstances, I was pretty isolated for several years there, and feel almost as if I suddenly came to as a far older person chronologically. (In some ways, it may be extremely appropriate for me to go out with younger people, because our social adjustment might be a better match; I basically missed much of my early 20s.)
I suspect that this touch of ambiguity has been holding some appeal, and it made me wonder about age ambiguity in general. This isn't really something I'd considered much, but it seems to fall within the liminal as well as gender ambiguity or anything else which comes closer to mind. Any thoughts on the matter?
