Grow up! Grow up! Grow up!...?

This is actually pretty interesting. I'll first throw in the obligatory statement that these attitudes aren't completely confined to men and women respectively - some men are biological clock-watching humorless tightwads, and some women have decent senses of humor and aren't afraid to grow old physically and retain the positive aspects of a youthful mentality.

That said, it's actually a pretty interesting point about a particularly negative feature of the gender culture. Perhaps as an offshoot of the pervasive gender culture where women are taught to be as 'normal' as possible while men are expected to branch out, take risks, and establish identities, it seems that humor, curiosity and playfulness, and exploration have been established as 'masculine' traits, whereas 'femininity' puts a lot of focus on trying to be a serious, ordinary, moderate-to-successful 20-something for one's entire lifetime. This is one of those examples where the attitude that has been encouraged for women is probably one we could stand to jettison as a society.

To make one of my favorite quotes from George Bernard Shaw:

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

What you fail to mention is that the term "grow up" is used as a shaming mechanism to get someone to do something. Sometimes it is for the person being shamed benefit while mostly it is for the benefit of the person doing the shaming.

Look at the whole peter pan thing. A lot of women and feminist are starting to criticize men for not wanting to get married and use the pretense that he is just "immature" while ignoring the fact that the man in question just refuses to do something that is not in his best interest.

Replace "grow up" with "why won't you do as I say" and it becomes very clear.

Granted most people men and women need to "grow up" or at the very least mature past middle school but alas I fear that is asking too much at times.

Growing up has nothing at all to do with keeping or not keeping the kid in your heart. When people tell you to grow up, they are talking about honoring your word and following through on your obligations. Setting priorities and knowing what is most important in life. If you say fun and childlike behaviors are most important then you have no business starting a family and will likely have great difficulty holding any sort of professional job. If however. you have the ability to set aside your foolishness, hobbies, and fun things while you take care of business, you will find that you always have time for them in the end.

Growing up is a bit like taking a ride in an elevator in a huge department store, A grown up is not a person who rides to the top floor and gets stuck in the adult section. These people are in ruts and miss out on a lot of life by being unable to cut loose and enjoy. A real grown up can ride the elevator freely between the floors. he or she is as comfortable in the children's department as the more adult departments. Functioning well at all levels and appropriately to the situation is the sign of a true grown up.

My husband and I actually had a discussion on this not long ago, in truth, yes, many males do need to grow up a bit, but, not too much. I look at it this way:

There's immature which never gets anything done, lacks focus and goals in life and lives only for the party.

There's overly mature, those who have forgotten how to have fun and all life is for them is a struggle to the next paycheck with no time in their life fore anything but work.

Neither are healthy, I personally think people should aim for the middle ground of those two, having their priorities in life straight yet still having some time for fun and goofing around because life just isn't worth living without a little fun.

A lot of men need to grow up, yet a lot of women need to remember what it is to have fun. That's how I see it at least, they should sort of meet half way on that one.

Well within the 3rd month I noticed that my boobs started to grow because my bra started to feel really tight on me. I guess it depends on your body. I had a friend that said that her boobs didn't grow all that much and my sister in law said that her boobs grew a lot. She has small breast but before she had her baby, man did she grow. So it's different for everyone. I'm barely 4 months and I already had to buy another bra.

I will never let the kid in me die life is boring otherwise, then what would be the point.

It seems though that 'some' women tend to try 'shame' men into acting the way they want with words such as "be a man"

Whether or not the guy does what she wants or not he is still a man and who are women to judge what a man should be is that not what they started feminism for in the beginning?

Um, no, women are the ones who are expected to be mature, girls are expected to act like young ladies from an early age whilst "boys will be boys". If a woman makes crude, immature jokes it is unnacceptable and crass but with a man it's funny.

Men are not afraid to grow old because society is alot kinder to older men, but women are considered past their sell-by date when they hit 30. Men are biologically wired to prefer younger women, that's why women are more afraid of aeging.

I consider myself a kid, not in the way MJ did. Most of my family is very young at heart both the men and women. I wouldn't be comfortable around someone that couldn't laugh or was too serious all the time.

It's a terrible thing when people lose the kid inside themselves. One of my best friends is a female & a lawyer, we grew up together and she does all sorts of character impressions and we watch the stupidest movies.She loves them.

supposedly, women mature sooner, but maturation is akin to the end of growth, thus when women mature, they stop growing. A delayed maturation can be beneficial in rapidly changing times

women do tend to be highly supportive of the highly controlling matriarchy whether they are feminist or not

I have have no problem with matriarchy, even though I love to point out their hypocrisy since if matriarchy is to b welcome, then patriarchy ought to be welcome as well if you really want equality

If you seek to support matriarchy and want to think of patriarchy as some dirty word, you are just a female supremacist, hardly any equality there at all

Maybe they mean 'grow up and think like a woman'. After 40 years of feminism, who is going to believe in that idea?