Twenty-somethings Don't Like Gen-x label???
Jon Seaman
I recently have come across two or three articles in the
newspaper as well as some twenty-somthing celebrity interviews all
claiming that they hate the GEN-X label. These people (Ethan Hawke,
Ben Stiller and nameless others) claim that twenty-somethings (aha
another label) don't like to be called Genereation Xrs. Don't
label me, try to pigeonhole me, blah, blah, blah.
My response is...bullshit. I like the label Generation-X.
It's pretty indicative of how I've been treated and how I feel.
Before I read Coupland's novel and found this newsgroup, I wondered
if my experiences were purely localized. Now I know that I have
a community of people who have similar thoughts, feelings, and
experiences.
I don't think the label is limiting. I think it's empowering.
Thoughts? Comments?
Peace,
jes
Keith Ammann
In a previous article, j...@unislc.slc.unisys.com (Jon Seaman) says:
> I recently have come across two or three articles in the
>newspaper as well as some twenty-somthing celebrity interviews all
>claiming that they hate the GEN-X label. These people (Ethan Hawke,
>Ben Stiller and nameless others) claim that twenty-somethings (aha
>another label) don't like to be called Genereation Xrs. Don't
>label me, try to pigeonhole me, blah, blah, blah.
In my case, not so much, "Don't label me," as, "Don't give me THAT label.
Bleah!"
> My response is...bullshit. I like the label Generation-X.
>It's pretty indicative of how I've been treated and how I feel.
>Before I read Coupland's novel and found this newsgroup, I wondered
>if my experiences were purely localized. Now I know that I have
>a community of people who have similar thoughts, feelings, and
>experiences.
>
> I don't think the label is limiting. I think it's empowering.
>
> Thoughts? Comments?
I think it's INSIPID, and we're all going to be supremely embarrassed by it
by the time we're around 50 the way Boomers cringe when you bring up the
movie "Wild in the Streets." It wouldn't even be so bad if we were the "X
Generation." But "Generation X"? Do we drive car Chevys? Listen to
music progressive and metal heavy? Eat tacos clear? BLARGH! It's bad
enough to have to watch people adopt all these trendoid linguistic
mutilations -- like making "The" an essential part of one's name and
insisting it always be capitalized, as in The Discovery Channel -- without
having other people force me to take part in one. I, for one, prefer the
"13th Generation" name, since it not only manages to include the dissed-by-
the-world connotation but also has its damn modifier in the right place.
(There's also the fact that I have read S&H and have not read Coupland, so
maybe my brand loyalty is showing.)
Being labeled isn't so bad. We label things all the time; we wouldn't be
able to make decisions about anything if we didn't. I agree that being
recognized as a coherent group is empowering. After all, the only really
bad thing about being labeled is when one is INACCURATELY labeled, i.e.,
made the victim of false assumptions, faulty generalizations or unfounded
prejudices. An accurate label is acknowledgement, which God only knows we
could use more of. But THAT LABEL ... eeeww. *sigh* Rant off.
--
What about tomorrow? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Keith Ammann is
++++++++++++++++++++++++ "We must not unsheathe + Pros...@cup.Portal.com
Quidvis recte factum + the great sword of intellect +++++++++++++++++++++++++
quamvis humile + to cut butter!" + "... BUT DON'T GO IN
praeclarum est ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE BASEMENT!"
Topaz
> I recently have come across two or three articles in the
>newspaper as well as some twenty-somthing celebrity interviews all
>claiming that they hate the GEN-X label. These people (Ethan Hawke,
>Ben Stiller and nameless others) claim that twenty-somethings (aha
>another label) don't like to be called Genereation Xrs. Don't
>label me, try to pigeonhole me, blah, blah, blah.
> My response is...bullshit. I like the label Generation-X.
>It's pretty indicative of how I've been treated and how I feel.
Idunno. I'm not sure how I feel about having my generation named
after a punk rock group, but I know for sure that I'm kinda insulted
that we're named after such a lame one.
Me, I'm ...a buzzcock-er? a wire-head? a card-carrying
member of the gang of four generation? crass?
--
(I whispered that Word on the roof of the Trans-Satellite Power Station,
and caused my hirelings to commit two murders. And you know? I didn't
feel a thing.):
to...@xmission.com
Keith D Perkins
Jon Seaman <j...@unislc.slc.unisys.com> wrote:
>
> I recently have come across two or three articles in the
>newspaper as well as some twenty-somthing celebrity interviews all
>claiming that they hate the GEN-X label. These people (Ethan Hawke,
>Ben Stiller and nameless others) claim that twenty-somethings (aha
>another label) don't like to be called Genereation Xrs. Don't
>label me, try to pigeonhole me, blah, blah, blah.
Perfectly understandable. To be labeled is to be marketed towards
and scrutinized.
> My response is...bullshit. I like the label Generation-X.
>It's pretty indicative of how I've been treated and how I feel.
>Before I read Coupland's novel and found this newsgroup, I wondered
>if my experiences were purely localized. Now I know that I have
>a community of people who have similar thoughts, feelings, and
>experiences.
I personally feel that the Gen-X label really fits the first-wave
of our generation well. However, I was born on 1970, and a lot of
the stuff that Copland talks about (the Brady Bunch, for example)
I hardly remember. I've also read Shampoo Planet, and that doesn't
seem to fit me either. However, the 13th Generation is broad enough
that it seems to fit well. It includes the 70s and 80s and goes from
the slums to the suberbs in scope. In Generations, Strauss and Howe
talk more in terms of the generational "feeling" than of specifics.
Keep on truck'n!
--Keith
Joe Peterson
: My response is...bullshit. I like the label Generation-X.
: It's pretty indicative of how I've been treated and how I feel.
: Before I read Coupland's novel and found this newsgroup, I wondered
: if my experiences were purely localized. Now I know that I have
: a community of people who have similar thoughts, feelings, and
: experiences.
: I don't think the label is limiting. I think it's empowering.
Well everything is labels. It seems to be a neccesary part of being
a member of a society to label things to understand who is "us" and
who is "them". I am so many things at different times, when I am
looking for a legal place to relieve myself I am "Men", when I am
in a classroom I am "student", when I am posting here I guess I am a
member of alt.socety.generation-x, and on and on...
All in all we shouldn't make such a big deal out of being labeled, when
it seems to be out of our control most of the time. Perhaps self-labeling
can be controlled but nothing else. The media has decided that people our
age are members of "Generation X" and there is little we can do to shake
the stereotype -- people think what they will we can only change opinions
with individual relationships in which we prove ourselves to be something
other than a stereotype.
Until the aliens invade and we unite as "Earthlings" there will always be
the "Us and Them" dichotomy. So I guess I am saying, uh. what am I saying?
Oh well "we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming". I
knew I should never use a word like dichotomy just makes me feel like I am
trying to be too smart or something.
Aloha,
Joe
Guru Aleph_Null
>newspaper as well as some twenty-somthing celebrity interviews all
>claiming that they hate the GEN-X label. These people (Ethan Hawke,
>Ben Stiller and nameless others) claim that twenty-somethings (aha
>another label) don't like to be called Genereation Xrs. Don't
>label me, try to pigeonhole me, blah, blah, blah.
Xer is more accurate than twentysomething, and less grating than being
called twentysomething (a mutation of thirtysomething). There are
Xers who are over thirty. These "conscientious objectors" just can't
take a label and turn it into something to their advantage. You don't
change the label, you change they way you act to be something that the
label doesn't predict. Let them try and come up with a new label, and
then change again. Boomers systematically turned their back on their
behavior of the last decade, we can do it on a monthly basis within
your own goals. :)
> My response is...bullshit. I like the label Generation-X.
>It's pretty indicative of how I've been treated and how I feel.
>Before I read Coupland's novel and found this newsgroup, I wondered
>if my experiences were purely localized. Now I know that I have
>a community of people who have similar thoughts, feelings, and
>experiences.
We are the few who were educated enough to be able to use the 'Net.
There are millions that don't have the knowledge and are too busy
trying to survive than to reach out and post to someone.
> I don't think the label is limiting. I think it's empowering.
> Thoughts? Comments?
The label isn't all that important. It doesn't work like the True
Names of Demons, you can't control us if you have the True Label of a
Generation.
>Peace,
>jes
--
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|Guru Aleph-Null s...@ukelele.gcr.com|% \ /| | | | |
`---------------------------------------'# \/ \_/ _|_ |__/
%#######################################% Where Prohibited.
Don B Christie
: I recently have come across two or three articles in the
: newspaper as well as some twenty-somthing celebrity interviews all
: claiming that they hate the GEN-X label. These people (Ethan Hawke,
: Ben Stiller and nameless others) claim that twenty-somethings (aha
: another label) don't like to be called Genereation Xrs. Don't
: label me, try to pigeonhole me, blah, blah, blah.
: My response is...bullshit. I like the label Generation-X.
Consider the position of the people you've listed - are they really part
of the X? Yeah sure their here in age but they may have been in celebrity
shells and surrounded by boomers and whatever the hell came in that sad
space between the boom and the X. Their loss?
I don't like the label much but as has already been said, it fits, it's
right. Someone mentioned that it should be the 'X generation': i don't
think so, i could be wrong but there IS something just the teensiest bit
backwards about this time and its children, so again, it fits.
I'm studying Gen X right now in an honours Phiosophy of Literature course
under a Prof known, in spite, as GOD. He is trying to tell me what the
message of life is in the book - particularely in the chapt. "December
31,1999" and he really just hasn't got a clue. That's the X. No
signature here because there are just too many influences to pull out a
role model with which to illustrate what we, what i, am.
My signature, my X, is Greg Brady and Women named Alice, is strip malls with
flower shops and bowling alleys, and is watching a 'cars' video with the
volume turned down while listening to 'magic hits of the 60's 70's 80's
and today!' on AM590 with a coat-hanger-ariel. How does one explain that
to someone 19 years old, 35 years old or someone like a celebrity who has
grown up in a shell of dreams?
don
Greg Wesson
>> I recently have come across two or three articles in the
>>newspaper as well as some twenty-somthing celebrity interviews all
>>claiming that they hate the GEN-X label. These people (Ethan Hawke,
>>Ben Stiller and nameless others) claim that twenty-somethings (aha
>>another label) don't like to be called Genereation Xrs. Don't
>>label me, try to pigeonhole me, blah, blah, blah.
I don't mind the genX label all that much, but it smacks of artificality when
swung around by marketing types. While labeling people into generations
has certain benefits for sociologists, it's a cop-out for marketers and
advertising execs. They can't figure out a way to sell a product on it's
own merits (as many products have no merits), so they try and make it seem
hip and trendy for a certain crowd. That's when labeling bothers me.
As for being labeled in general, whatever. We all label things, it's too hard
to deal with reality if we don't. After all, can you imagine going to the
CD store, and not having any idea what you were buying? I mean, artists will
complain about being pigeon-holed, but I don't really want to pick up a CD
only to get home and find out it's Regae. (No flames please. I don't like
Regae. You are intitled to like it. I just don't. No flames please). We
need labels to uncomplicate this complicated world we live in.
Greg
P.S. Any of you Canuks out there ever watch "Street Cents" on the CBC? This
week, Evil-but-dumb Ken was trying to find the "street-cents-look." Man, that
show cracks me up. And that new co-host they have, she is a babe...
--
+ -- Gregory J. Wesson (lanp...@bnr.ca). + -- + Phone Esn 393-9193 -- +
The opinions in this post are mine, and do not reflect those of BNR.
Quote : "travelling despondently is better then arriving here"
- "Mostly Harmless", Douglas Adams
Don B Christie
>: P.S. Any of you Canuks out there ever watch "Street Cents" on the CBC?
>: This
>: week, Evil-but-dumb Ken was trying to find the "street-cents-look."
>: Man, that
>: show cracks me up. And that new co-host they have, she is a babe...
Don't have a TV these days, dog ate the remote and we can't figure out
exactly how to turn the thing on the old fashioned way. Do tell about it,
is it worth invading another home to see?????
Do mail or post won't you, i'm lonely here and it's so cold with out the TV.
don
troy...@delphi.com
lives exposed to faux-Euro ad gimics like Le Car, Towne Shopping Centre, ad
nausium. Might as well include Generation X in the list of genuine simulated
walnut veneer we've be
en given all our lives.