Lovers watch their backs
Mar. 16th, 2019 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaThe other day, someone accused me of being a millennial. I wasn't even eating avocado toast at the time.
I'm not a millennial, I'm the tail-end fo Generation X. And pleased about that in a way that is mildly ridiculous, given that the year I was born in wasn't exactly under my control.
So what prompted someone - who both knows my age, and is a clear decade my junior - to call me a millennial?
Around eighteen months ago, ChrisC grew a beard. It's been long enough now that I've stopped noticing it. However, at social gatherings with friends we see less often, it's still commentworthy.
If people asked me whether I liked the beard, I'd consider that a reasonable question. (For the record, I don't actually have strong feelings either way about it. It's fine.)
But they don't. They ask questions like:
"Haven't you put a stop to that yet?"
"Are you letting him keep that beard?"
"Why don't you make him shave it off?"
My response to all of these is that it's his face, and his business. If he wants to grow a beard, it's basically nothing to do with me.
Now, if I really hated it, or thought it looked genuinely ridiculous, I'd tell him. And he might choose to take my opinions on his facial hair into consideration.
I'm sure if I said that ChrisC wouldn't let me cut my hair, or demanded that I shave my legs, people would think that was quite unreasonable. (For the record, he hasn't said any such thing.) The people to whom I was relating this had just been talking about overruling their partners' haircut choices. Apparently, in some circumstances it is quite accetpable to be dictatorial about a partner's personal appearance and grooming choices.
And I don't think it's acceptable. At all.
And apparently that makes me a millennial.
I do like avocado toast, though.
I'm not a millennial, I'm the tail-end fo Generation X. And pleased about that in a way that is mildly ridiculous, given that the year I was born in wasn't exactly under my control.
So what prompted someone - who both knows my age, and is a clear decade my junior - to call me a millennial?
Around eighteen months ago, ChrisC grew a beard. It's been long enough now that I've stopped noticing it. However, at social gatherings with friends we see less often, it's still commentworthy.
If people asked me whether I liked the beard, I'd consider that a reasonable question. (For the record, I don't actually have strong feelings either way about it. It's fine.)
But they don't. They ask questions like:
"Haven't you put a stop to that yet?"
"Are you letting him keep that beard?"
"Why don't you make him shave it off?"
My response to all of these is that it's his face, and his business. If he wants to grow a beard, it's basically nothing to do with me.
Now, if I really hated it, or thought it looked genuinely ridiculous, I'd tell him. And he might choose to take my opinions on his facial hair into consideration.
I'm sure if I said that ChrisC wouldn't let me cut my hair, or demanded that I shave my legs, people would think that was quite unreasonable. (For the record, he hasn't said any such thing.) The people to whom I was relating this had just been talking about overruling their partners' haircut choices. Apparently, in some circumstances it is quite accetpable to be dictatorial about a partner's personal appearance and grooming choices.
And I don't think it's acceptable. At all.
And apparently that makes me a millennial.
I do like avocado toast, though.
