ILoveMichaelJ829
New member
Mods....I didn't know where to put this... Sry!
Ok well although we all KNOW MJ is completely right in his beliefs of Peter Pan and childhood, some people are stupid as we know.... And this....Well this shows MJs not so weird after all... However, why aren't they calling these people "freaks" like they call Michael?? The world makes no sense..... :rolleyes
'Rejuveniles' treasure childhood thrills
10:54 PM CST on Tuesday, December 21, 2004
By JAMIE GUMBRECHT / The Dallas Morning News
A lot of grown-ups out there are not done growing up.
RICKY MOON/Special Contributor
'Rejuveniles' such as Amanda Mulligan, with son Harrison Layne, embrace the chance to take part in childhood activities. Such as Amanda Mulligan, 30, who sails down roller coasters at Six Flags, aims a mean beam during laser tag and still drops her son off for band practice on time.
And Ginny Keener, a 26-year-old with an easy laugh, an advertising job and a towering shelf of Harry Potter paraphernalia in her living room.
Then there's Brandon McWhorter, 33: Husband. Father. Homeowner. Furniture wholesaler. Star Wars Lego builder.
Their not-at-all dirty little secret is out. They've been tagged.
They're "rejuveniles."
The word defines adults who continue to revel in childhood activities. It's not about simple nostalgia or even immaturity. With academia watching and marketers salivating, rejuveniles (or kidults or adultescents) are showing that aging and growing up aren't the same anymore.
Webster's New World College Dictionary editors last week named "adultescents" the Word of the Year for 2004, a credit to its number of mentions, societal significance and fun factor, says Mike Agnes, the dictionary's editor in chief. Los Angeles-based writer Christopher Noxon says he was researching a book on the subject when he coined the term "rejuveniles." Mr. Noxon, 36, met his wife playing kickball (as an adult). His desk is covered in toys. He likes being a kid.
He hit on the idea of the book after the birth of his second child. As he found himself indulging in Popsicles and SpongeBob SquarePants, he began to question what made him an adult. Then he noticed that most of his friends were behaving the same way.
REX C. CURRY/Special Contributor
At first Ginny Keener was embarrassed by her peers' reaction to her Harry Potter collection, but now the 26-year-old proudly puts her inner child on display in her living room. "It's easy to treat this as a trend. But it's not boomer-variety nostalgia. It's how people are changing their ways of thinking," says Mr. Noxon, whose book, Rejuvenile: How a New Breed of Reluctant Adults is Redefining Maturity, is to be published by Crown Publishing Group next year. "The problem is the classification. Just because it appeals to kids doesn't mean it shouldn't appeal to adults."
Changing values
The lines between childhood and adult behavior weren't always so blurry.
About 50 years ago, being the man of the house or the woman in charge was a sign of maturity. To survivors of the Great Depression, having a job, a house and responsibilities meant success and security, says Kathy Merlock Jackson, editor of The Journal of American Culture.
But when children reared during the Depression became adults, they had more money. "Everything I didn't have" became the spending mantra for parents of baby boomers. And after one generation doted on its kids, other generations followed that pattern.
People today are having fewer children, making it easier to lavish them with attention. And many people are marrying later, pushing back one traditional sign of adulthood.
"There was a time when you finished schooling, had your kids, you were done. Now we live in a transitory world, and nobody wants to feel stuck," Mr. Noxon says. "It's significant that people are waiting to get married, to have kids, waiting to define adulthood."
But even after adulthood arrives, many turn to childhood for relief.
For example, there's Ms. Mulligan. She has season passes to Six Flags and frequent movie dates with her 9-year-old son. Those were once-a-year treats when she was a kid, but they now make for a weekend mother-son adventure.
They play laser tag, watch sports and roll around their Frisco neighborhood, son on inline skates, mom on a bike.
Having a son "has brought the tomboy out in me," says Ms. Mulligan, adding that she dresses more like a teenager than a mom. "We're buddies. I just hope I'm not spoiling him."
Some may question her parenting style. But she says she's still a parent, enforcing bedtimes, homework rules and chore assignments.
"I have to say, 'I'm really not playing,' then he really knows," says Ms. Mulligan, a single mom. "Sometimes I have to really get down on him, and it kills me. I don't like being like that — he's my best friend."
Adults often rediscover favorite pastimes and characters during peak stress times — early days of high school or college, around a new marriage or child or when their nests empty out.
"It's edgy and comforting all at once," says Dr. Jackson, who also is a professor of communications at Virginia Wesleyan College. "You know you're not really supposed to be doing it, but you want to do it anyway. It's whimsical, personal, that 'in' joke you had with your brother."
So adults with office jobs buy McDonald's Happy Meals for a diet-friendlier portion, then prop the Hello Kitty toys on their desks.
Some click between bad news on CNN and fantasy on Cartoon Network.
But many won't admit it.
Keeping quiet
Ms. Keener once covered her bathroom in Harry Potter merchandise, but stripped down the curtains and soap dishes after co-workers and friends joked about the decor.
"They looked at me like I was a total imbecile," says Ms. Keener, 26. "I was afraid of what they'll think of me. Think, 'She's kind of juvenile, or she's too much of a kid to be taking work seriously.' "
Today, she keeps a living room display of figurines, blankets and books inspired by J.K. Rowling's series.
Although she didn't discover Harry Potter until she was in her 20s, Ms. Keener is a long-time lover of fantasy stories. Her favorite childhood TV shows — full of fairy-tale brutality, danger and evil — prepared her for the real world, Ms. Keener says.
As an adult, she even tracked down VHS tapes of Shelley Duvall's Fairy Tale Theater on eBay. It's a little embarrassing, she says, but they are good stories — and it's always comforting to see your memories in action.
"I can't believe I spent $100 on these tapes, but I just had to have them," Ms. Keener says.
Some say the emergence of television could be a major force behind the rejuvenile movement. The medium is a great equalizer of adults and children, Neil Postman said in 1974's The Disappearance of Childhood , a classic read for childhood researchers.
In the age of radio and newspapers, large vocabularies and written words were languages that children didn't understand. But TV uses images and sounds like a high-tech picture book. Children don't learn about sex and war from heart-to-hearts with mom and dad; they see it on the evening news and primetime sitcoms.
So television ends up chipping away at childhood innocence, leaving no clear sign of when adulthood starts.
"Baby boomers grew up with TV and rewrote adulthood," Dr. Jackson says. "Young people are closer to their parents because they share these popular culture experiences.
"Now if we define too rigidly who the adults and children are, we're not looking at what they have in common."
Marketers have already figured this out.
Enter marketing
"It's an attitude, not a demographic," says Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallword Henderson Advertising in New Mexico. "Free spiritedness, craziness, fun — that attitude crosses generational lines."
Old music, characters and icons become a "cultural frame of reference," Mr. McKee says. It makes people remember where they were when they heard a song or saw an actor the first time.
That's how Led Zeppelin works for Cadillac ads, and Morgan Fairchild for Old Navy ads, he says.
Marketing also helped commercialize childhood memories. By the late 1970s, it was clear that if a character was beloved on TV, it would also be sought after as a doll, an action figure or decor.
Children with highly saturated attachments to G.I. Joe and Care Bears grew into money-wielding adults who still adored the characters, just in time for replicas of the originals to be released.
MICHAEL AINSWORTH/DMN
'The Star Wars thing was a magical time for a 7-year-old,' says Brandon McWhorter, 33. 'It stuck with me.' But his collection isn't for play, he plans to make movies with it. That may be the case with Mr. McWhorter and his Star Wars collection. It started with soft-hearted nostalgia but took up more space in his house as more merchandise was released.
"I've gotten a little more obsessive," Mr. McWhorter says, arranging Stormtroopers in his living room display. "The Star Wars thing was a magical time for a 7-year-old. It stuck with me."
Ten-year-old son Drake is more interested in Yu-Gi-Oh! but Mr. McWhorter reminds his son that Yu-Gi-Oh! is a fad, but Star Wars is forever.
"I'm not going to play with them. I want to make stop-motion movies and stuff with 'em," Mr. McWhorter says of his figures. "I just do it because it's fun, not like a lot of the geeks you hear about."
Still, rejuveniles are getting more academic attention than average geeks, adventurers and nostalgia-buffs. Some social scientists call it a wave of immaturity that dumbs down society by ignoring the good parts of adulthood, says Mr. Noxon, the author.
"There are people that think it's the end of Western civilization," says Mr. Noxon, a rejuvenile sympathizer. "It's tempting to get overanalytical with people who say it's just fun," he says.
Just fun — could it be just that easy?
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...juve.3fb82.html
Amanda
P.S.
People just don't get it... Do they not see this is how Mike is?? That he's not crazy??
Ok well although we all KNOW MJ is completely right in his beliefs of Peter Pan and childhood, some people are stupid as we know.... And this....Well this shows MJs not so weird after all... However, why aren't they calling these people "freaks" like they call Michael?? The world makes no sense..... :rolleyes
'Rejuveniles' treasure childhood thrills
10:54 PM CST on Tuesday, December 21, 2004
By JAMIE GUMBRECHT / The Dallas Morning News
A lot of grown-ups out there are not done growing up.
RICKY MOON/Special Contributor
'Rejuveniles' such as Amanda Mulligan, with son Harrison Layne, embrace the chance to take part in childhood activities. Such as Amanda Mulligan, 30, who sails down roller coasters at Six Flags, aims a mean beam during laser tag and still drops her son off for band practice on time.
And Ginny Keener, a 26-year-old with an easy laugh, an advertising job and a towering shelf of Harry Potter paraphernalia in her living room.
Then there's Brandon McWhorter, 33: Husband. Father. Homeowner. Furniture wholesaler. Star Wars Lego builder.
Their not-at-all dirty little secret is out. They've been tagged.
They're "rejuveniles."
The word defines adults who continue to revel in childhood activities. It's not about simple nostalgia or even immaturity. With academia watching and marketers salivating, rejuveniles (or kidults or adultescents) are showing that aging and growing up aren't the same anymore.
Webster's New World College Dictionary editors last week named "adultescents" the Word of the Year for 2004, a credit to its number of mentions, societal significance and fun factor, says Mike Agnes, the dictionary's editor in chief. Los Angeles-based writer Christopher Noxon says he was researching a book on the subject when he coined the term "rejuveniles." Mr. Noxon, 36, met his wife playing kickball (as an adult). His desk is covered in toys. He likes being a kid.
He hit on the idea of the book after the birth of his second child. As he found himself indulging in Popsicles and SpongeBob SquarePants, he began to question what made him an adult. Then he noticed that most of his friends were behaving the same way.
REX C. CURRY/Special Contributor
At first Ginny Keener was embarrassed by her peers' reaction to her Harry Potter collection, but now the 26-year-old proudly puts her inner child on display in her living room. "It's easy to treat this as a trend. But it's not boomer-variety nostalgia. It's how people are changing their ways of thinking," says Mr. Noxon, whose book, Rejuvenile: How a New Breed of Reluctant Adults is Redefining Maturity, is to be published by Crown Publishing Group next year. "The problem is the classification. Just because it appeals to kids doesn't mean it shouldn't appeal to adults."
Changing values
The lines between childhood and adult behavior weren't always so blurry.
About 50 years ago, being the man of the house or the woman in charge was a sign of maturity. To survivors of the Great Depression, having a job, a house and responsibilities meant success and security, says Kathy Merlock Jackson, editor of The Journal of American Culture.
But when children reared during the Depression became adults, they had more money. "Everything I didn't have" became the spending mantra for parents of baby boomers. And after one generation doted on its kids, other generations followed that pattern.
People today are having fewer children, making it easier to lavish them with attention. And many people are marrying later, pushing back one traditional sign of adulthood.
"There was a time when you finished schooling, had your kids, you were done. Now we live in a transitory world, and nobody wants to feel stuck," Mr. Noxon says. "It's significant that people are waiting to get married, to have kids, waiting to define adulthood."
But even after adulthood arrives, many turn to childhood for relief.
For example, there's Ms. Mulligan. She has season passes to Six Flags and frequent movie dates with her 9-year-old son. Those were once-a-year treats when she was a kid, but they now make for a weekend mother-son adventure.
They play laser tag, watch sports and roll around their Frisco neighborhood, son on inline skates, mom on a bike.
Having a son "has brought the tomboy out in me," says Ms. Mulligan, adding that she dresses more like a teenager than a mom. "We're buddies. I just hope I'm not spoiling him."
Some may question her parenting style. But she says she's still a parent, enforcing bedtimes, homework rules and chore assignments.
"I have to say, 'I'm really not playing,' then he really knows," says Ms. Mulligan, a single mom. "Sometimes I have to really get down on him, and it kills me. I don't like being like that — he's my best friend."
Adults often rediscover favorite pastimes and characters during peak stress times — early days of high school or college, around a new marriage or child or when their nests empty out.
"It's edgy and comforting all at once," says Dr. Jackson, who also is a professor of communications at Virginia Wesleyan College. "You know you're not really supposed to be doing it, but you want to do it anyway. It's whimsical, personal, that 'in' joke you had with your brother."
So adults with office jobs buy McDonald's Happy Meals for a diet-friendlier portion, then prop the Hello Kitty toys on their desks.
Some click between bad news on CNN and fantasy on Cartoon Network.
But many won't admit it.
Keeping quiet
Ms. Keener once covered her bathroom in Harry Potter merchandise, but stripped down the curtains and soap dishes after co-workers and friends joked about the decor.
"They looked at me like I was a total imbecile," says Ms. Keener, 26. "I was afraid of what they'll think of me. Think, 'She's kind of juvenile, or she's too much of a kid to be taking work seriously.' "
Today, she keeps a living room display of figurines, blankets and books inspired by J.K. Rowling's series.
Although she didn't discover Harry Potter until she was in her 20s, Ms. Keener is a long-time lover of fantasy stories. Her favorite childhood TV shows — full of fairy-tale brutality, danger and evil — prepared her for the real world, Ms. Keener says.
As an adult, she even tracked down VHS tapes of Shelley Duvall's Fairy Tale Theater on eBay. It's a little embarrassing, she says, but they are good stories — and it's always comforting to see your memories in action.
"I can't believe I spent $100 on these tapes, but I just had to have them," Ms. Keener says.
Some say the emergence of television could be a major force behind the rejuvenile movement. The medium is a great equalizer of adults and children, Neil Postman said in 1974's The Disappearance of Childhood , a classic read for childhood researchers.
In the age of radio and newspapers, large vocabularies and written words were languages that children didn't understand. But TV uses images and sounds like a high-tech picture book. Children don't learn about sex and war from heart-to-hearts with mom and dad; they see it on the evening news and primetime sitcoms.
So television ends up chipping away at childhood innocence, leaving no clear sign of when adulthood starts.
"Baby boomers grew up with TV and rewrote adulthood," Dr. Jackson says. "Young people are closer to their parents because they share these popular culture experiences.
"Now if we define too rigidly who the adults and children are, we're not looking at what they have in common."
Marketers have already figured this out.
Enter marketing
"It's an attitude, not a demographic," says Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallword Henderson Advertising in New Mexico. "Free spiritedness, craziness, fun — that attitude crosses generational lines."
Old music, characters and icons become a "cultural frame of reference," Mr. McKee says. It makes people remember where they were when they heard a song or saw an actor the first time.
That's how Led Zeppelin works for Cadillac ads, and Morgan Fairchild for Old Navy ads, he says.
Marketing also helped commercialize childhood memories. By the late 1970s, it was clear that if a character was beloved on TV, it would also be sought after as a doll, an action figure or decor.
Children with highly saturated attachments to G.I. Joe and Care Bears grew into money-wielding adults who still adored the characters, just in time for replicas of the originals to be released.
MICHAEL AINSWORTH/DMN
'The Star Wars thing was a magical time for a 7-year-old,' says Brandon McWhorter, 33. 'It stuck with me.' But his collection isn't for play, he plans to make movies with it. That may be the case with Mr. McWhorter and his Star Wars collection. It started with soft-hearted nostalgia but took up more space in his house as more merchandise was released.
"I've gotten a little more obsessive," Mr. McWhorter says, arranging Stormtroopers in his living room display. "The Star Wars thing was a magical time for a 7-year-old. It stuck with me."
Ten-year-old son Drake is more interested in Yu-Gi-Oh! but Mr. McWhorter reminds his son that Yu-Gi-Oh! is a fad, but Star Wars is forever.
"I'm not going to play with them. I want to make stop-motion movies and stuff with 'em," Mr. McWhorter says of his figures. "I just do it because it's fun, not like a lot of the geeks you hear about."
Still, rejuveniles are getting more academic attention than average geeks, adventurers and nostalgia-buffs. Some social scientists call it a wave of immaturity that dumbs down society by ignoring the good parts of adulthood, says Mr. Noxon, the author.
"There are people that think it's the end of Western civilization," says Mr. Noxon, a rejuvenile sympathizer. "It's tempting to get overanalytical with people who say it's just fun," he says.
Just fun — could it be just that easy?
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...juve.3fb82.html
Amanda
P.S.
People just don't get it... Do they not see this is how Mike is?? That he's not crazy??