A ladies age

walshb

Sleepy wrote: »

I really don't see what's rude about it tbh. It's no more personal a question than asking where someone is from / what they do with themselves imo.

Again, to you it might not be rude. To others it is. To me it is a rude and unnecessarily nosy question. Applies to a lot of areas in life. Some people find some things fine and dandy whereas others find them not so. No issue in certain circumstances, but just to ask for the sake of asking (being nosy) it is rude.

BTW, asking someone where are they from in general conversation is not as specific or nosy as asking an adult their age. I'm from Dublin/Cork/US/England etc. It's a lot more generic.

OldNotWIse

I guess it's justified if you want to make sure they're legal

(gets coat)

No, I think its because women are just generally very sensitive and silly about the whole age thing. Probably more of an issue for us than for men because our fertility is linked to our age. And also traditionally we are more objectified (this isn't a feminist rant) and more worth attached to our looks which naturally decline with age.

Shuffles into the corner to slap on anti-wrinkle cream and put the eggs on ice

Sleepy

walshb wrote: »

Again, to you it might not be rude. To others it is. To me it is a rude and unnecessarily nosy question. Applies to a lot of areas in life. Some people find some things fine and dandy whereas others find them not so. No issue in certain circumstances, but just to ask for the sake of asking (being nosy) it is rude.

BTW, asking someone where are they from in general conversation is not as specific or nosy as asking an adult their age. I'm from Dublin/Cork/US/England etc. It's a lot more generic.

TBH, I'd lean towards what OldNotWise said: it's something many women are a bit silly about.

What about being asked one's age causes such an emotional reaction of embarrassment / anger to make it a "rude" question?

I can think of a few reasons that would generate such a reaction, and all say *far* more about an individual than the number of birthdays they've celebrated:

Because they're insecure in how they look?
Because they worry so much about keeping up with the Joneses that they feel unaccomplished for the age they are?
Because they genuinely haven't accomplished anything in their time here?
Because they don't like being held to adult standards of accountability?

The last, I feel, is the most common in Irish society. Watching the group of mothers at my kids school gate that refer to each other as "girlos" when they're in their mid 30's to early 50's is both amusing (in a "how can they be so delusional?" way) and depressing (in a "how are their kids going to grow up when they have parents with Peter Pan complexes?" way). (It's not unique to the women mind, the same women tend to be married to men who spend more time in the pub watching overpaid teenagers kick a football than they do kicking a ball with their own kids).

We have utterly fetishized youth imo.

walshb

Sleepy wrote: »

Because they're insecure in how they look?
Because they worry so much about keeping up with the Joneses that they feel unaccomplished for the age they are?
Because they genuinely haven't accomplished anything in their time here?
Because they don't like being held to adult standards of accountability?

.

You can keep adding to the list. It's a personal feeling and opinion for most people. Many people see it as their business and affair and nobody else's. I get this completely. Similar to what they may earn. At times we need to divulge all sorts of information about ourselves. I also get this.

Sleepy

You're right in that there are probably dozens of other insecurities which lead people to want to hide their age but I can't really see it as comparable to one's earnings, that's akin to comparing one's eye colour with one's political or religious affiliations.