Primogeniture
Sep. 2nd, 2002 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueageism (n.) The state or condition of awarding favor based upon corporeal seniority.
From the time I was four, I regularly beat up my friends' older siblings. You'd think this would be difficult, because I was small even for my age, but most opponents don't know how to fight a smaller person. Bullies especially - it's very similar to Fezzik's loss in The Princess Bride.
Why exactly I would do this was never particularly clear to anyone.
It did mean they gave me a wide berth, especially once they noticed my fondness for found weapons. After all, they couldn't complain to anyone without suffering ridicule - I was small, blond, and prone to dresses with petticoats. On a seemingly unrelated note, I also terrorized most of my teachers by giving insightful lectures and then questioning their basic moral foundation. This often led to their resignation, or my control over the lesson plans and class activities.
Conclusion: I deal badly with de rigueur authority figures.
Better Conclusion: On my first day in prison, I would hit the toughest inmate with a folding chair.
In other words, I have always understood the way power structures work, and how to manipulate them. More often than not, this is the reason for my deep disgust whenever I meet an incompetent in a position of power. There are a handful of adults that I deeply respect, (which fortunately includes The Parents,) and I have found I can learn at least one thing from everyone I run across; this realization long ago catapulted me to a new level of maturity wherein I don't smash books across people's faces.
Except figuratively.
In any case, during what might be referred to as "The Dark Age," anyone older than me was in serious psychological jeopardy unless they acknowledged my supremacy - and this sometimes did include The Parents. They will never know how clever it was to have had me when they did, thus making me the oldest child in the family, (all girls except the young Max). Had it been otherwise, cousins' heads may have gone flying.
(Technically, I do have two older cousins - Chris and Amber. They were never present at family Christmases, although their mother was. They now live in Houston, where I work out excuses to avoid them even though they aren't horrible. Coincidence?)
All of this entry has been a roundabout way of saying that I've figured out why I have issues with Chris Dempsey, sibling of Patrick.
I've never had an older brother before.
From the time I was four, I regularly beat up my friends' older siblings. You'd think this would be difficult, because I was small even for my age, but most opponents don't know how to fight a smaller person. Bullies especially - it's very similar to Fezzik's loss in The Princess Bride.
Why exactly I would do this was never particularly clear to anyone.
It did mean they gave me a wide berth, especially once they noticed my fondness for found weapons. After all, they couldn't complain to anyone without suffering ridicule - I was small, blond, and prone to dresses with petticoats. On a seemingly unrelated note, I also terrorized most of my teachers by giving insightful lectures and then questioning their basic moral foundation. This often led to their resignation, or my control over the lesson plans and class activities.
Conclusion: I deal badly with de rigueur authority figures.
Better Conclusion: On my first day in prison, I would hit the toughest inmate with a folding chair.
In other words, I have always understood the way power structures work, and how to manipulate them. More often than not, this is the reason for my deep disgust whenever I meet an incompetent in a position of power. There are a handful of adults that I deeply respect, (which fortunately includes The Parents,) and I have found I can learn at least one thing from everyone I run across; this realization long ago catapulted me to a new level of maturity wherein I don't smash books across people's faces.
Except figuratively.
In any case, during what might be referred to as "The Dark Age," anyone older than me was in serious psychological jeopardy unless they acknowledged my supremacy - and this sometimes did include The Parents. They will never know how clever it was to have had me when they did, thus making me the oldest child in the family, (all girls except the young Max). Had it been otherwise, cousins' heads may have gone flying.
(Technically, I do have two older cousins - Chris and Amber. They were never present at family Christmases, although their mother was. They now live in Houston, where I work out excuses to avoid them even though they aren't horrible. Coincidence?)
All of this entry has been a roundabout way of saying that I've figured out why I have issues with Chris Dempsey, sibling of Patrick.
I've never had an older brother before.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-03 12:48 am (UTC)-Guess
(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-03 09:00 am (UTC)-R