~I heard a statistic on NPR this morning indicating that Obama is the favorite among voters under 45 and Clinton is the favorite among those over 45. I'm sure there is data that backs that up (though I wouldn't mind seeing the actual numbers), but it really doesn't jive with my experience. Among the people I know preference doesn't really break down by age --or gender.
~I guess it is important for the candidates to know where their support lies--but I get really tired of hearing these generalizations. Wouldn't it be more interesting to hear how things break down over the issues--like the war and health care and the economy?
~I think that I may be oversensitive to age generalizations because they RARELY describe me, and I feel like I'm being (inaccurately) pigeon-holed. As I've written here before, I haven't done things in the same order as the norm. And I've always had friends both older and younger than myself. In seminary, in fact, I had far more in common with the women in the late 20s and 30s than I did with the women who were my age.
~I get really impatient, too, with being lumped as a baby boomer (the same would be true if I were gen x or gen y or millennial). I just don't find the labels all that useful; in fact I think they are the basis for some miscommunication when people make too many assumptions based on them.
~Ageism abounds, too. It doesn't get as much attention as some of the other -isms, but it's real and it works against both younger and older people--again based on assumptions about what a person can or can't do, will or won't do, should or shouldn't do at a given age, assumptions that may not be in sync with any particular individual's reality.
~I don't know if there is actually a point to this rant (and it probably could be better written, but I'm tired). Cognitive psychology tells us that we are predisposed (maybe even hardwired) to put things into categories to make the world understandable, and age is a salient category (as is gender). I just don't think it's all that useful.
2 comments:
You're right all around, I think. But I'm laughing a little bit at the realization that perhaps it's my age--45--that is making me so undecided about my primary preference. Would that I were just older or younger and I'd have a clear trend to go with.
Yes, more discussion of issues would help (although the differences between Hillary and Obama are not, generally, that great, which means that not-so-wonky reporting might have trouble getting it all presented properly. But we deserve better quality discourse.)
I get really frustrated at those age generalizations as well. I've known so many people in the church biz who spout off all the time about what Gen X believes or doesn't believe or prioritizes or doesn't prioritize, and it seems to me that these generalizations are painting with so broad a brush as to be essentially meaningless.
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