Immaturity as an identity
MATURE1. (LIKE AN ADULT)
Mature people behave like adults in a way that shows they are well developed emotionally:
He's very mature for his age.
A mature decision is one that is made after a lot of careful thought:
Upon mature reflection, we find the accused guilty.2. (PHYSICALLY GROWN)
completely grown physically:
a mature adult
sexually mature
Mature male gorillas have silver-grey hairs on their backs.
mature oak trees
IMMATURE1. disapproving
not behaving in a way that is as calm and wise as people expect from someone of your age:
Stop being so silly and immature, Chris!
She's rather immature for her age, don't you think?not having much experience of something:
politically immature2. BIOLOGY specialized
not yet completely grown or developed:
While the animals are still immature, they do not breed.
Cambridge Dictionary
What’s wrong with maturity as a concept?
Maturity has a clear biological meaning - completed growth, an advanced stage of physical development. This meaning is often put as secondary in dictionaries, and the primary one is not so clear. Maturity encompasses a set of stereotypes, applied to adults: calm and evenly paced speech, beliefs and ethics that are seen as reasonable and wise by the society, rational and cautious acts.Young people are believed to be lacking these traits because of their biology. Together with them, women, oppressed ethnic minorities, queer people, trans and gender-non-conforming people are frequently accused of acting immaturely. When a national supremacist or a cis straight queerphobe is promoting bigotry, they are often calm, because they have their majority status and their privilege to protect them. Targeted minorities that respond to them in an emotional, impulsive manner do not have that privilege: it is their lives that this conversation is about, and this bigotry puts them in direct danger.Often how calm and rational you are in the conversation depends directly on how safe and in control you feel. Maturity becomes a measure of your life stability - or your success at faking this stability, and this is why both children who are used to more freedom and respect from adults and children who suffer abuse and learn to mask their stress are called “mature for their age”.Immaturity in any meaning that is not biological and physical is a tool of dehumanization. When people want to strip anyone of their rights and agency, they compare this person to a child, because this is how our society treats children.
Why reclaim immaturity?
I want to reclaim “immature” as a political identity, akin to “queer”, “freak”, “bitch”. First of all, I do not believe that my age should put me on the opposite side of the barricade, against the youth - I do not see myself as fit to govern another human being just because they are young and I am older, and I want to undermine the supremacy of other adults. Second, I do not think I owe the people who oppress me (cis straight homophobes, transphobes, ethnically prejudiced members of the local national majority) a calm and respectful debate about whether I should have human rights. Both these positions make me unwise, not in line with what the establishment wants from me.There may be other reasons to reclaim immaturity. The youth, who are called immature derogatorily and “mature for their age” as a compliment, would benefit from solidarity with their peers, instead of throwing them under the bus for adults’ approval. Social expectations, imposed on adults, are often emotionally suffocating as well. If you ever had to defend why you, as an adult, do something considered “childish”, you can consider embracing it instead.
What to say instead of ”mature” and “immature”?
There are plenty of much more neutral words that convey the same sentiment, when you want to give someone a compliment or a piece of criticism. Consider:
Rational, reasonable, knowledgeable, good at getting the point across, experienced, capable, mindful.
Ignorant, aggressive, irresponsible, clueless, insensible, tactless, entitled, unfit, unprepared.