I agree here ^^^ of the origins of this trend. And it makes sense! I believe it started in good faith. But also, it’s not a healthy coping mechanism. I understand venting one’s frustrations and making jokes on not ‘feeling like an adult.’ Because a lot of the times I don’t either. But, these people are adults. I agree that it might not feel that way because so many people are missing out on milestones of adulthood, but regardless, people have to accept they are adults. It might not include every single freedoms you grew up seeing as ‘adulthood’ like living independent, starting a career, having families etc but you are no longer a child.
There’s a billion dollar cultural industry pushing nostalgia 24/7 to people desperatly trying to relive their childhood, there’s women intentionally infantilizing themselves specifically to say they literally cannot take care of themselves, there’s constant push for ‘going back to the way things were’ by tradtionists (ie facists), there’s a whole ‘mental health’ movement surrounding cutting people off and claiming victim hood instead of taking responsibility for one’s actions, etc etc etc.
Like, all this too say, as unfortunate the world has ended up, it’s time to grow up and move on. You can’t relive your childhood. You may not feel like an adult, but you are one. With responsibilities but also freedoms and agency. I’m sorry that we can’t buy houses or live on our own or even just feel like we can be independent, but the solution to that is not to say it’s because you, as an individual, are incapable of it because ‘you’re a girl.’. The response to feeling like you are not living up to adulthood isn’t literally trying to rid yourself of all agency.
