First, I want to be clear this isn‘t an attack directed at anyone in particular. I was only reading the Belle vs. Ariel debate and it reminded me of a lot of comments I’ve read over the years, so this subject goes up and beyond any one thread or post and beyond the '90s Disney heroines even. I had actually thought about posting it there, but besides being off-topic I also thought it deserved its own thread, mostly because I’m very passionate about the subject.
Getting right to it: I’ve always found the term “spoiled brat”--which comes up often around discussions of Ariel (and, in some cases, Jasmine and Belle, too)--an extremely degrading, ageist term. I know that I’m in the minority, since it has common usage among those “more mature” (usually, old[er]) people. Only recently, Haley Reinhart on American Idol got some very immature comments on a bunch of websites from a large number of grown adults because they thought she was a spoiled b*tch (exact words, with some worse) all based on her facial expressions--which I find very sad indeed.
That term in particular has always implied to me that children (no matter what age--5, 25, 50) should be in a perpetual state of gratitude no matter what their parents give or--more often--don’t give them. And if they dare say one disobedient word--or apparently make a disobedient face (:lol:
)--they’re instantly an unforgivable, ungrateful, spoiled brat whose problems are "overdramatized whining." How dare those silly little children dare to be more than insert-the-blank to fulfill their parents’ wishes--be seen and not heard--rather than fawn over how wonderful their parents are--because all parents are immediately deserving of respect!All I can say is I have never called a child that--and I never will, no matter how “difficult” or angry they might be, or appear to be to those who don‘t want to understand the issues their dealing with (and they are difficult ones--not childish or less important because they are a child's problems). Despite their age, they have lives, feelings, and thoughts that may or may not be “obedient” to the “mature” people around them, and that‘s not silly at all.
I wanted to unpack what that expression means to me, because it‘s a loaded one. One of my Education classes also made me think more about getting to what’s behind ideas/statements/beliefs.
Before someone typecasts me as [someone who would be] one of those lax, Democrat, liberal parents who let their children do whatever--I do believe in boundaries, rules, etc. I don’t believe in strict/blind obedience; I don‘t believe in breeding drones; and I don‘t believe a child ever “owes” a parent anything--considering the parent is the one who decided to have/raise the child, and that experience alone is something worthwhile. I have the least respect for people who don‘t take their roles as parents--or how they treat their children--seriously.
I know, for myself, I would be extremely grateful to have the chance to raise a child, so the treatment of children/teenagers has always been important to me. Maybe it’s my experience as a gay man who can’t honestly have children at the drop of a dime that makes them more valuable to me than the average person who can simply have a one-off with somebody and thus have the instantaneous right to raise a child. It could also be that I’ll be a licensed high school teacher in a year, and I want--and I’ve learned--that you can’t “reach” someone by belittling or diminishing them. They need to be treated, on some level, as equals who have a right to respect--because we are all living and breathing people regardless of our age.
For me, children are only miniature human beings, and no matter how much they still need to learn and grow, they should be respected just like any other person on this earth. And, yes, that includes those “difficult” teenagers. We always hear people preach about respect for elders--how about a little respect for the children for once?
Off my soap box now. It was a bit preachy up there.
Feel free to respond, or talk about other ageist issues. For the elderly, there are a wide range of them (I‘m guessing dvdjunkie will have some views), but the other side rarely gets any limelight so I went for it.
After this essay-post and the dash-spamming, I'm not expecting many responses. This is why I don't make threads often. 
