1D. Allen Dempsey AllenMr. D. PerkinsAP Lang, 4th period4 March 2014Act Your AgeThere is a strange phenomenon in America. Children are told to act their age by adults who try to deny their own years. We live in a world afraid of getting older. Society constantly reminds us that aging is bad and that a young look is the key to maintaining a social status.Older people who try to look younger than they are were seen more negatively than those that acted their age. But that doesn't mean that those who act their age are not still seen as more negative than actual yo ...view middle of the document...
They dye their hair to cover gray, and they get Botox injection to eliminate wrinkles. Although, some celebrities have denied this trend by publicly saying no to attempts to look younger than they are. But, because status is so dependent on beauty and youth, many assume this idea is the right one.Parents sometimes try to recapture their younger years by imitating the youth. Adults of a certain age do not merely try to look young; they also try to act younger than they are, or in this case "cool." They use (and mostly misuse) teenage slang, and they make themselves look ridiculous at weddings imitating the current dance crazes - almost always unsuccessfully. If they have kids, they may try to imitate their clothing style. Mothers will dress just like their teenage daughter.At a certain age men start to take up extreme sports such as ultra-marathon running and mountaineering in an attempt to hold off the thought of losing their manly physique in age. They may even think of themselves as disgusting or repulsive. This is because they compare themselves to the appearance of a younger person.Maybe it is because I am still young, but I do not understand why forty-, fifty-, and sixty-something can not take pleasure in the age they are rather than try to recapture their youth. Every stage has its pleasures; adults should learn that.
