#the disappearance of tweenhood | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

magnetothemagnificent · 11 months

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The world is so hostile to tweens.....

Like we joke about how our schools growing up would ban the latest toy trends, but that reality genuinely horrific when you think about it. Like maybe 1% of the bans were based on safety, but the rest cited reasoning like

-"kids were bartering for collectibles" (kids learning about economics and product value)

-"kids were wearing them and the colors were too flashy" (kids experimenting with self expression and fashion)

-"kids were playing with them during lunch and recess instead of using our rusted safety hazard playground" (kids utilizing their free time to do what helps *them* unwind).

Play areas specifically geared towards children and especially towards teens are constantly being shut down. "Oh kids today are always on their phones!" Maybe because

-there are barely any arcades left and even less arcades that aren't adult-oriented,

-public pools and gyms are underfunded and shut down,

-"no loitering" laws prevent kids and teens from just hanging out,

-movie theatres only play the latest films and ticket prices are only rising,

-parks and playgrounds are either neglected or replaced with gear only directed at toddlers and unsuitable for anyone older

-genuine children's and young teen media is being phased out in favour of media directed only at very small children or older teens and adults.

-suburbs and even cities are becoming more and more hostile to pedestrians, it's just not safe for kids to walk to or ride their bikes to their friends' houses or other play destinations

Children's agency is hardly ever respected. Kids between the ages of 9-13 are either treated as babies or as full-grown adults, with no in-between. When they ask to be given more independence, they are either scoffed at or given more responsibilities than are reasonable for a child their age.

This is even evident in the fashion scene.

Clothing stores and brands like Justice and Gap are either closing or rebranding to either exclusively adult clothing or young children's clothes, with no middle ground for tweens. Tweens have to choose between clothes designed for adults that are too large and/or too mature for their age and bodies, or more clothes they feel are far too childish. For tween girls especially it's either a frilly pinafore dress with pigtails or a woman's size dress with cleavage. No wonder tween girls these days dress like they're older, it's because their other option is little girl clothes and they don't want to feel childish.

And then when tweens go to school, the books they want to read aren't available because they cover "mature" topics (read: oh no two people kissed and they weren't straight or oh no menstruation was mentioned or oh no a religion other than Christianity is depicted), so kids are left with books for way below their reading level. No wonder kids today are struggling with literacy, it's because they can't exercise and expand their reading skills with age-appropriate books. Readers need to be challenged with new words and concepts in order to grow in their skills, only letting tween read Dr. Seuss and nursery rhymes doesn't let them learn.

Discussions about substance use, reproduction, and sexuality aren't taught at an age-appropriate level in school or even by children's parents, so they either grow up ignorant and more vulnerable to abuse, or they seek out information elsewhere that is delivered in a less-than-age-appropriate manner. It shouldn't be a coin-toss between "I didn't know what sex was until I was 18 and in college" or "my first exposure to sex as a tween was through porn" or "I didn't know what sex was so I didn't know I was being sexually abused as a kid."

Tweenhood is already such a volatile and confusing time for kids, their bodies are changing and they're transitioning from elementary to middle to high school. It's hard enough for them in this stage, but it's made worse by how society devalues and fails them.

We talk about the disappearance of teenagehood, and maybe that's gonna happen in the future, but the erasure of tweenhood is happing in real time, and it's having and going to have major consequences for next generation's adults.

#leftie shit #i guess #ageism #social issues #tweenhood #the disappearance of tweenhood #current events #relevant issues

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greysunshinexx · 2 years

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ok hear me out

when seetha is introduced, this guy from their village mentions that ram hasn't contacted them in the four years he's been gone. he didn't write back once.

(i relate to this deeply. im also a perfectionist and have way too much pride, and will disappear for weeks when working on a project, only to reappear with the results.)

but. he writes back after he arrests bim. on my first couple rewatches i thought it's because he's so close to his goal he can taste it, but that isn't the case for me? if im that close to finishing a project, i get more secretive, hunker down and finish it fully before showing other people. because, hey, ive gone this long without telling you what ive been up to, i don't even know how to start that conversation now. it's gonna be so awkward to reach out to you again, because ive been avoiding you kinda. it's much easier if i just show you the finished product.

so it got me thinking. he didn't write back for other milestones in his mission. he has 2 medals pinned to him at the beginning of the movie. he didn't write back about those. he didn't write back when he didn't get recognition for dispersing a 2000-person mob single-handedly. he didn't even write back when he got reminded of her when his friendship bracelet (😩) flew off, or even when he thought he was going to die in an hour.

he did write back when he had to arrest bim.

that single thing was somehow much more significant and frustrating that he had to reach out to seetha about it. someone he's known since childhood, and lived through trauma with. trust me, that would make anyone close; we can even presume that she's his closest friend. he can't talk to babai about it, he might judge him. what if he thought that he was a bad cop, having befriended the guy he was supposed to arrest? frolicking around with him for five whole months when his search for lacchu was going nowhere? he only has seetha to write to.

"i had to betray my closest friend. i don't know if what I'm doing is right. i wish you were with me." - excerpt from the letter.

he wrote to her about bim, despite his perfectionism, despite his pride standing in the way, despite having never written back for 4 years because arresting bim was just that deeply upsetting.

and he doesn't even apologize for not writing back all this time.

i don't even know if this hits anyone else like it hits me lol. the catalyst to him doing something that goes so against his comfort is...betraying bim. and like, he's so rattled by having to arrest bim that he is so vulnerable in his letter to seetha, mentioning that he is unsure of his Life's Goal, that, need i remind you, he's been working towards since tweenhood.

idk

#rrr #rambheem #rant #ram is my babygirl #if i ever write fanfiction im going to hurt him so bad

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