Mumsnet paused a “boomer” thread this morning, and…

I would say most examples pass without comment as it happens all the time (often with no offence meant, people just tend to lean on stereotypes).

Much the same happens with boomer type comments - most pass unnoticed, some get picked up.

@Nesbi your first sentence is contradictory. I have seen many threads where posters challenge remarks which stereotype men.

The parallel I’m drawing is that very few people have any issue with stereotyping or disparaging posts about men on here (and I’m not suggesting they should). Individual men can take offence, they can point to countless examples of individual men living lives of poverty and toil, with no power or respect. they could contrast their lives to those of individual wealthy, powerful and successful women and say “see, you can’t say ALL men have benefited” - but ultimately that wouldn’t change the tone of the conversation about “men” as a group on here.

I think there is something similar in the tone of conversation around “boomers” - particularly from people who feel that, as a “group” they do wield privilege, including economic and political power, which other groups don’t have.

That might well feel insulting, or ageist, to individual “boomers”, but they are in much the same place as individual men who complain about “sexism”.

In both cases, MN might take action against the most egregious examples, but in a lot of cases it will just be considered acceptable comment/venting.

Of course you can talk about the category as a whole. What you can't do is claim that every person within a particular age range had privileges and fortunate lives, and subsequent generations have suffered.

But isn’t the argument that variation of individuals within a class/category shouldn’t prevent you from talking about the category as a whole - particularly if you are referring to broad differences between that category as compared to a different category (including here the differences in society, technology, politics, economics and culture and their role in shaping people born during period A as compared to people born in period B)?

I think it used to be. My mum is from the baby boom generation and would have described herself as a boomer in the same way as someone would say Gen Z but it’s become derogatory. Maybe since the ‘ok boomer’ trend not so long ago.

That's got to be millions of people. Men who went to Eton and inherited castles, people working on the buses and in factories, people growing up in orphanages. People who were socially and materially disadvantaged in every way.
Stereotyping doesn't help.

Is somebody really suggesting tbose born between 1946 and 1964 are systemically disadvantaged ? I would suggest the opposite is true !

But sex is a protected characteristic.

l was born in December, 1964, which technically makes me a Boomer. However, if I had been born three weeks later, I would have been Generation X. In reality, I have far more in common with the older Gen Xs than l do with the older Boomers, who were born in the immediate postwar period and, themselves have far more in common with my parents’ age group, born during the war. I think that the same could be said for most people who were born c. 1960-1970.

WELL SAID!

If MN were going to crack down and delete posts making disparaging, stereotyping comments about old people (or young people) as a class, there would be no excuse for them to not also crack down on posts making disparaging, stereotyping comments about men as a class.

At that point everyone might as well pack up and go home as all we’d have left are parking threads, inheritance battles and poo trolls.

Yes, another term I absolutely hate and always make sure I say so when I hear/read it.

It’s used with the same intention as the term “Karen” - i.e to shut out people from a certain demographic.

Don’t be so ridiculous. 🤣

Yes! The heat from the cooker helped to dry everything, but it was steamy!

I have one of those pulleys now, very practcal it is too.

@saraclara that's exactly the machine my mum was using, all through the 70s, until about 1983. The one latterly had it's own spin cycle, which was an improvement, but it was still laborious. The clothes were hung up on one of those racks that was on a pulley in the kitchen ceiling.

Yes post war the '50s when tbe baby boomers were children. That was not the typical experience of some body born between 1946 and 1964 who were adults in 1970s.
/80s. I remember washing machines of that era because I was a child.

saraclara

Don't pretend that a washing machine means the machines were have now

Just what I thought.
My mother had a washing machine in the 70s exactly as you describe.

Livelovebehappy

This generation coming through will then benefit when they inherit.

According to a lot of MN threads, many don't want to wait.

Do you know what a post war generation washing machine looked like? And it wasn't in the 70s

I do because both my grandmothers, my mother and my aunts had one. There was a hose to attach to the tap and another draped over the sink to drain it. There was nothing remotely automatic. It was:

'fill with water and bar soap;
put washing in,
let the machine agitate it
drain
fill with water to rinse
agitate
drain
fill and rinse again
agitate
drain
put each individual item through the wringer
All those processes meaning that the woman could never leave the machine.

Then she'd attempt to dry clothes without a tumble dryer, radiators, or any heating other than the fire in the main room

So come on now. Don't pretend that a washing machine means the machines were have now

By the time I had a washing machine, it was a twin tub. So similar, but with the luxury of a spin dryer instead of a mangle. And I had central heating.

Of course they were lucky. But so what? So that means it’s okay to vilify them and froth at the mouth, just because they benefited from what was happening at the time? This generation coming through will then benefit when they inherit.

Every young women today benefits from the feminists of the 60s and 70s.

This, 1000 times.