Repost

I accept now that I must handicap myself in relation to conservatives. When they are talking to me, they are not actually addressing me by any means:  they are addressing the 12 year old (the one I used to be).  Conservatives worship innocence, but hate adult women, who are defined for them in terms of a dangerous sexuality.  They are intent upon turning adult women back into children.

It makes sense that they should panic, believing something nefarious is taking place, when an adult woman introduces a certain amount of irony into  a conversation with a conservative misogynist, as if one were to say:

"Hey I'm not a 12-year-old anymore. LOOK. I am over here. And just pay attention!"

To the conservative, for whom the twelve year old is all thereever can be, this muste seem as if a twelve-year-old is going nuts, getting hysterical, indeed showing a mean side. They want the old imagery back - that of the twelve-year-old who simply listens, with measured enthusiasm.

And yes, again:  they don't want the twelve-year-old going nuts. They don't even (let us be realistic) want the 13-year-old. Instead, they demand that reality adapt to suit their terms. And it upsets them deeply when they cannot see what they expect to see, or when their hallucinations  are put to question.