[over dinner]
- James (age 12): "Mom, whenever we go shopping for like one specific thing, you go into 'shopping mode' and want to look at everything!"1
- Mark (age 10): "Yeah, women are like that."
- Me: "Mark, that's sexist."
- Mark: *thinks for a bit* "Yeah, I go into shopping mode too sometimes and want to look at everything. Especially if we're in the video games section!"
- Me: "Lots of people do, and it doesn't have much to do with gender."
- James: "Is there such a thing as ageist?"
- Me: "Yes."
- James: "Or sizeist?"
- Me: "Yes. There are lots of ways people identify groups which are like them and say that their group is better than other groups. Society gives us certain messages like thin people are better than fat people, that attractive people are better than unattractive people, that young people are much more attractive than older people but only older people can be trusted and that elderly people aren't valuable at all, that people with lighter skin are better than people with darker skin..."
- James & Mark: *think a bit*
- James: *smirks* "You could save time and just say that you are better than everyone else. That way you don't have to decide who's in your group and who isn't."
- Mark: "What's that called? Individualist?"
- Me: "Narcissist, actually."
- James & Mark: *rolling eyes as I am obviously pulling their legs* "Nuh-UH!!"
(I explained that yes, narcissist is a word, and told them the story of Narcissus.)
1. Actually, I
always want to look at everything. When I'm in a store, that means browsing the merchandise. Anywhere else, it means constantly asking myself "am I being rude by too closely examining my surroundings?" Say, if my surroundings happen to be someone's home or place of business.
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