Dear Etsy,
Congratulations. You’ve done it again, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Your oh-so-cute Gift Guides for Grandmas and Grandpas went out of their way (before they were edited to CYA) to perpetuate your stereotypical view of anyone over, oh, say, 35 as completely out of touch with today’s culture and fit only for retirement to a rocking chair where they can sit all day and knit and reminisce about the Good Old Days, that is when they aren’t baking cookies. I’d have thought that Vanessa, at least, would have learned from the bruhaha that arose from her article this summer, but apparently not.
Funny, the grandparents *I* know are out there building houses with Habitat for Humanity. They are through-hiking the Appalachian Trail, 2000 grueling miles, while most of you youngsters on the Etsy staff probably wouldn’t even make it as far as Neels Gap. They are filling classes at the John C. Campbell Folk School and similar institutions, expanding their minds and stretching their creativity to the limit and beyond. They’re still fleecing people half their age, or younger, at the poker table for that matter.
Perhaps I should send my husband, a grandfather of four (ages six to thirteen), up to your headquarters to show you what today’s grandpa is really like. I’ll make sure he’s wearing his brand new Tae Kwon Do black belt, earned just last Saturday, and carrying the two pairs of nunchucks that he’s asked for in preference to YOUR gift suggestions this Christmas. He can do a little kumdo (Korean sword) demonstration while he’s at it — he’ll have the black belt in that in a month or so as well.
In any case, your narrow-minded viewpoint has gotten really old; older, in fact, than you think we boomer-generation oldsters are. It’s time you got over yourself and your attitude.
Great article. I hated those two Storque pieces — the products of lazy thinking and a distressing disconnect from the lives and experiences of real people.