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

[CurlewKate]

…just for a second I thought ageism was being taken seriously. Sadly, no.

Highly unlikely.

Me too...especially as I discovered I am one! 😄

Been a lot of nasty goady threads on here of late and Mn are doing nothing to stop them. Am right on the cusp of deleting my account but waiting to see which threads pushes me over the edge.

I think you're right, this thread quoted is just one example. It's cruel and goady and relies on the worst kind of stereotypes.

'Keeping up with the Jones' - the aspirational semi-generation that came between the mid 50s and 60s when idealism was regaining a hold and people started looking to the future again (as I remember learning about it when I was doing politics and economics anyway).

If there’s a stereotype it should be men and women who lived through the sixties and sexual liberation and are more likely to be found listening to Queen than Max Bygraves. And who often swear like sailors 😬

Isn’t this just the difference between ‘most X are Y’ and ‘most Y are X’.

MNers rightly defend the right to say most violent thugs are men, and don’t take kindly to being told that’s sexist becuase most men aren’t violent thugs. They don’t even take kindly to being told that most men aren’t violent thugs, which is (fairly) seen as obvious and irrelevant.

If it’s not an -ist when it’s about being a violent thug, why is it an -ist when it’s about counting coins slowly?

My boomer husband likes Led Zepp, Metallica, Marillion, Queen, Black Sabbath - lots of other metal bands I can't remember - the bands that were big in his teens and 20s.

We have pretty similar tastes although I am more one for pure 80s pop nostalgia than he is. We both agree that music more or less died round about Y2K 😆

Interesting, although speaking as one born in the early/mid 60s, it would never be an expression I use. My parents, definitely. If they were still with us they would. Be late 90s whatever generation that is

I find it extraordinary (but I really shouldn't) about how much some younger women resent and despise older women (see the Grace Campbell thread in FWR).

They're going to get such a shock when they hit 50 - or even forty going by the way some of them think.

How contradictory. That's the very opposite of "Keeping up with the Jones".

That’s interesting because I certainly swear a lot. Don’t younger people? I lived through the 60s but was a child, so too young for sexual liberation.

Dire Straits, though. Always. Queen was fabulous but Knopfler rules.

Yes, it's the internalised misogynist ageism. Older women have been the font of wisdom, traditionally, and had valuable knowledge.
Think of men's fear of this, and the persecution of "witches". The way that older women are degraded now is by being objects of scorn and ridicule . This just shows how the importance of female wisdom has been eroded by men for their own power, and this has been accepted by many women as well.

"I despise all Boomers"

"I despise all men"

Two statements no MNetter will ever get deleted for.

They do but they don’t expect older people to. Apparently older people are supposed to be very ‘proper’ 🤣🤣🤣

Dire Straits also excellent - my parents listen to them too (see also Wham, Culture Club and various music that was my generation’s 🤣)

My mum admits she fancies the arse off Roger Daltrey too 🤣🤣

Not many posts with "Gen Z" in the title are positive either. Any characterisation of an entire generation of people that ignores huge individual variation in personalities is ridiculous.

Not really - the able-bodied are advantaged as a class compared to disabled people as a class. It certainly isn't the case that younger generations are more fortunate than the class of people born between 1946 and 1964. There is no element of "punching down".

How so? Keeping up with the Jones' is all about aspiration and idealism.

No. It's about being competitive and dissatisfied with your lot. "They've got a Magimix! We need one! They've got a set of steak knives! We need them!"
Consumption, not idealism. The very opposite.

Yes, that's the problem, isn't it? Together with ludicrous notions of perceived advantages. It's class and wealth, not age that confers it.
Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Clarkson, Princess Anne and Johnny Rotten are all "Boomers".
No similarity at all!

If you say so, I didn't invent it. I leaned it at college.

Seems like one of my responses to a post today was reported… and I got a pretty nasty email from ‘those who must be obeyed’… only posts I commented on was to say I thought the term boomer was an insult… then I tried to make people see that weight loss jabs were tested on force-fed monkeys.
Which ever if my posts were reported … they were both accurate!

Right. I grew up with it and heard it a lot, plus caution against it, as greed and materialism grew. Our priest even gave a warning in the pulpit "stop trying to keep up with the Jones! Live within your means!"
Good advice.

Goodness - you got deleted for that?! Was there an explanation? Because some posts are very unpleasant.

Is it though ? What about millenials or Gen X ? All ageist ?