Defining rites of passage

[jay]

Given a debate in the hallways at work today with hopeforyou, over someone's celebration this evening ... I just don't see how celebrating the onset of an icky, unpleasant bodily function that causes half the population to be cranky and require chocolate and paper products one out of every four weeks is a rite of passage, other than as an affliction. Might as well design a ritual to celebrate, say, acne as the door to adolescence.

In this culture, IMO the things which most clearly delineate children from adults are gaining independent mobility and finances. So I think that a first paid outside job and gaining a driver's license are the true rites of passage in the US, both usually happening around age 15-16.

Comments

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Some of it comes from a reaction to my Southern upbringing... after dinner, the men would gather in the living room and talk about business and politics and the war (Vietnam) and "serious" topics, while the women were expected to gather in the kitchen and wash dishes and gossip. As a small child, I wandered back and forth, but when I reached a certain age I was invited to stay with the "serious" men's group (old boy network?). Which I thought was unfair to my female cousins. And propagated stereotypes...