You’ve got to hand it to Gen Z!!

Well, I was only replying in the context of western youth movements in recent history - but yes, yes indeedy! Parallels aplenty.

Mao obviously!

And it was Mai whipping it on. A man at the time in his 70s.

Plus ca change.

Whatever the cohort of the majority of trans activists, they are certainly not disrupting traditional thinking on gender but bringing that traditional thinking (from roughly 1950s) back with full force, from hair length and wearing dresses and makeup to acting submissive and girly.

But in a sense I can see the rebellion aspect of that, as many of their parents and grandparents were among those actually disrupting traditional thinking on gender, so if you want to rebel against them you revert to retrogressive values. Too bad that this is dreadful for what they would call vulva people.

The problem with youthful rebellions is that many of them hurt the youth rebelling much more in the longer run than their parents, because the young don't have better weapons available for them than what they do to themselves and how they act and which drugs they take and what kind of sex they have etc. So I liked the eras where the rebellion was mostly about music and wearing outfits which told the group you belonged to but differed from older people's outfit, as none of that would hurt the rebel in the longer run.

Drugs are much worse, and medical body modifications may be the same or even worse.

deadwildroses.com/2019/10/07/handy-venn-diagrams-the-radical-feminist-position-on-gender/

This is a really handy diagram for those new to feminism or from the US, who've been told that feminists want traditional gender roles. You'll see that religious conservatives and trans rights activists have just as much in common as anyone else.

Gender is the system which opresses us. Sex is our bodies, no more or less.

Yes, MrsTerry.
That’s the analogy that sprang to mind. The demonising of The Four Olds and the cancelling and shaming and destruction of anything that opposed the movement. Driven by children and young adults, whilst older adults either complied or hid.

"But then came Gen Z who decided to disrupt the traditional thinking around gender. And all hell has broken loose. Gen X who thought of themselves as seriously tolerant have been massively freaked"

Disrupt? Not really. Reify, more like. Feminists - across the generations you mentioned - sought to tear gender stereotypes apart and get rid of them, helping end misogyny and homophobia.

Trans activists came along and said that was transphobic and that gender (ie sex based stereotypes) is actually innate in everyone. Politicians and big corporations saw this new "progressive" movement was super for the patriarchy so happily backed it.

I think it's unfair of you to pin in all on gen Z though. These regressive (and homophobic and misogynist) ideas about gender stereotypes have been around a hell of a long time. And the idea that you could"fix" a feminine presenting gay man by turning him into a "woman" is decades old. Older if you look at other highly gendered (as in with strong stereotypes for each sex) societies with 3rd gender categories.

Not remotely freaked out.

Deeply concerned, yes. At the massive amounts of mental and physical ill health, unhappiness, emotional immaturity, issues with coping with boundaries from others and setting boundaries for themselves, compassion for others, independence of thought....

I could go on and on.

I suspect we'll be picking up the pieces of this large group - incidentally from several generations - for generations to come. As well as a society managing the tactics and strategies that writers and speakers such as David Irving introduced to the world, along with those many, many ethical issues. Boundaries. So much of this is people struggling with boundaries, looking for boundaries, having needs that drive them to break boundaries.

Just the first one I thought of … to illustrate that men have been imitating womenhood for a lot longer than these kids

Lily Savage didn't invent drag, it has a very long tradition indeed.

@MadamAndTheAnts

But then came Gen Z who decided to disrupt the traditional thinking around gender. And all hell has broken loose. Gen X who thought of themselves as seriously tolerant have been massively freaked out

Disrupted the traditional thinking around gender?

My TikTok is full of men dressed as a caricature of what they think a woman is: with plastered on makeup, outfits that are too young for their age and never anything a woman would wear to the office, deep voices disguised as a high pitched squeak in a poor imitation of a woman and enticing big fake smiles and nodding heads with emphasised expressions to draw in an audience

I have never met a woman like this in real life and I’m 43.

But we DID watch Lily Savage do this in the 80s …So what traditional thinking are they disrupting?

or are they just men trying to push into a woman’s world and making a complete mockery of it?

maybe they are failing to disrupt anybody’s thinking and really just copying a drag Queen from 40 years ago? Hardly new age radical really

Gen Z - the first generation to have their “youth rebellion” curated for them by middle aged white male billionaires with a regressive-masquerading-as-progressive agenda that has resulted in even deeper sex inequality and more entrenched misogyny and homophobia than before, and a slew of mutilated young people.

If you ignore the white and billionaire part, they aren't. The cultural revolution in China was sold as a youth movement to destroy the four 'olds': The Four Olds were: Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits. There are huge similarities. The way people are pilloried and shamed, threatened with violence and sacked. It's all frighteningly reminiscent.

Read your history, children.

It is, isn’t it.

Almost like the OP wasn’t posting in good faith! Shocker.

Gen Z - the first generation to have their “youth rebellion” curated for them by middle aged white male billionaires with a regressive-masquerading-as-progressive agenda that has resulted in even deeper sex inequality and more entrenched misogyny and homophobia than before, and a slew of mutilated young people.

Their “youth rebellion” directed and funded by said middle aged white males, the result of insane amounts of propaganda and top down lobbying by rich, influential people of those in positions of power and authority.

And Gen Z are the poor saps who think this is coming from them, and it’s authentic and radical and revolutionary, blissfully unaware that they’re just pawns in the game of let’s make sure wealthy middle aged white men find a way to conserve and even extend their privilege in this so-called progressive, post equality movements era.

Yay.

I think it’s heartbreaking they’ve been so misused myself, their youthful fervour, passion and idealism so corrupted and turned into a force to make the world a less safe, more hostile place for those who are truly vulnerable, all while they genuinely believe (some of them, at least) they’re doing the opposite.

The young women and girls, in particular, mobilised to fight against their own interests and enforce patriarchal authority - much like the women of Saudi and Iran who police other women’s clothing and behaviour. (Although at least those women don’t delude themselves there’s anything remotely feminist about what they’re doing.)

Heartbreaking they’ve been sold this lemon, and the extent of those who have collaborated with selling it to them: their teachers, their unis, (some of) their “liberal” parents, the NHS, the police, the unions, the CJS, the media, Hollywood, the BBC, popular culture in general - all indoctrinating them with the tenets of this neo-authoritarian quasi-religion and telling them this is the only way for modern, forward thinking young people to frame their view of the world in general and “gender” in particular.

I mean, all youth movements had some backing from the Establishment in terms of record labels, concert venues, film studios, media etc, but I don’t recall another “youth movement” that was actually promoted and enforced by the Establishment.

Weird.

Ah, I was wondering if the OP was going to respond to the points made, but unsurprised to find they haven't.

I concur with the responses pointing out the idiocy in suggesting that the current youth generation have challenged the ideas around gender. As many have already have said, they are entrenching "gender" not challenging anything about gender stereotypes and gender norms.

Gen Z who decided to disrupt the traditional thinking around gender What!? LOL! More like GenZ has been conned into going back to 1910s genders at the behest of big pharmaceutical companies. I really wish GenZ would think for themselves and create something new, not follow this shite. This gender stuff is fake - we wouldn't be seen dead following big corporations!

This is not an organic youth movement. Gen Z have had this done to them.

I know. Decades of progress dumped in the bin, for what?

And I mourn for all those bright and daring teens who have jumped in at the deep end, blitzing their bodies with hormones and surgery. Cheered on by ‘friends’ who melt away when the kids realise they need help ….

All the reckless things we did at that crazy age, most of us survived without lasting damage. No chance of that for this drugged, tricked and damaged generation.

Has any other youth culture ever been so pandered to and medicalised and written into law. That isn’t Gen Z’s fault it’s Gen X who for some unfathomable reason lost the ability to say “no”.

*pink

Yep my Gen Z DD too knows that sex is immutable and gender woo is nonsense. As do my gen Z nieces.

I'm gen X and believe we were much less gender conforming - no punk, massive eyelashes, pumped up lips for us. We were all in dungarees and short hair/DM's

Totally.

Politicians can’t have a robust debate with a minor as an opponent.

It's very typical. I'm reminded of Greta T and her environmental campaign, which seemed largely to be a way for older and more powerful people to manipulate politics and the press.

They are a very naive bunch of kids.

My gen z’s know you can’t change sex and that some things should be segregated by sex in the interests of fairness and safety for women

thank fuck

so i agree with others on here, people of all different ages are intent on pushing this stuff through

Thank god my adolescent rebellion wasn't driven and funded by billionaire white men, it looks really miserable.