People of every generation have a tendency to think that the "kids today" are worse in various ways than the kids of their own childhoods. But the kids growing up today are a lot more tolerant and open minded than kids even 25 years ago, and that's a good thing. Tonight I had an amusing example of that.
We were driving past the local country club (still 99% white), and I suddenly recalled a debutante party I attended there when I was about 20 years old. Yes, when I was around that age, I had several friends who had "coming out" parties and dances, and I was a guest at some of them. As I was remembering that, it suddenly occurred to me that I never hear about debutante events or parties anymore, even though I have two teenage children growing up in the same southern, private school milieu in which I grew up.
So I turned to my 8th grade daughter who was in the car with me and asked, "J, do teenage girls still have debutante parties anymore?"
J to me: "What's that?"
Me: "You know, like, a coming out party."
J to me: "You mean like a party to celebrate a girl telling her family she's gay?"
Ha! What an awesome change that, only 20 years after I last attended a debutante party, that's the first thing my own teenage girl thinks about when she hears "coming out party," instead of imagining an ancient ritual in which nominally virginal teenage girls are offered up as marriage material to groups of "suitable" young men.
And what a great idea for a party!
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