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Comment by manmal | Hacker News Reader

Interesting story! To me it seems Ms Garner is ok with growing old and more fragile, but does not accept being viewed as inferior or respect-unworthy. Good for her! I wish more elderly people would decouple their loss of youth from their self regard.

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> I wish more elderly people would decouple their loss of youth from their self regard.

I think Garner's point is that we live in a society in which other people's regard for your worth is a function of your age.

And yet, hypocritically, she negatively judges the youth as such.

Furthermore, she considers a innocent question from a child as a insult to her age and gender.

That's not the half of it. This author deserves no respect based on that article.

She is typical of "me me me" and the continual flow of sexism we see from Australian journalists. The last few decades in Australian media have been a dark spot. This author is sexist, arrogant and takes pride in yanking a strange girl's hair (which is tantamount to assault).

"In two strides I was behind the schoolgirl. I reached up, seized her ponytail at the roots and gave it a sharp downward yank."

"My only regret is that I couldn’t see the Asian woman’s face at the moment the schoolgirl’s head jerked back and her insolent grin turned into a rictus."

Also:

"The armed child behind the police station counter unable to conceal her boredom...."

Yes, however I originally felt uncomfortable commenting much further here, at the risk of being accused of sexism.

Not all cultures have this function in which worth is inversely proportional to age. It is something we are taught by society and choose (as individuals) to believe or reject. When you are young, it is inticing, because we are young and therefore this idea means we have great worth. The problem is most people hold on to the idea even when they are older and it becomes dysfunctional; they can't let it go and society tells them they are right to not let it go.

How we are regarded is largely a function of how we allow ourselves to be regarded. Rejecting other people's regard when it is based on faulty premises is one of the gifts of age, that, sadly, not everyone acquires.

Self regard is the cure for the disregard of others.

What I saw in the article is that Ms Garner doesn't care much for respect, she just doesn't want to be looked at as weak because she is old are a woman. Her stories demonstrate consistent pride in the contempt with which she treats the people around her.

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