You’ve got to hand it to Gen Z!!

[MadamAndTheAnts]

I know the whole transgender thing causes a lot of debate on Mumsnet. I’m not looking to stir that up here. But, regardless of where you stand, I think we all have to hand it to Gen Z for managing to freak out older generations so effectively.

Boomers spooked the Silent Generation with their love of rock n roll and the counterculture of the 60s.

Gen X framed the Boomers with acid house and rave.

Millennials were kinda lame as ‘hipster’ was little more than irony and beards.

Millennials and Gex thought they’d seen it all and were cool and tolerant.

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!!!!

You have to hand it to Gen Z!!!

I'm feeling very confused now. As a very late boomer who also enjoyed raving and had some pink dungarees at uni but wouldn't necessarily have classified myself as a feminist (then) I have obviously failed miserably at being a stereotype.

You're such a wind up merchant OP.

There’s actually a micro generation that spans from ‘77 to ‘83 (or thereabouts) called Xennials (people used to call us Thatcher babies) so you can let her know about that and it might make her feel better!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xennials

That’s interesting.

I’ve been wondering if the younger zoomers are quite different to the older ones so perhaps there will be a similar micro generation identified and covid will be the differential event?

It's such an odd way of categorising people anyway. I have far more in common with a person who shares my interests who is twenty years older or twenty years younger than me that I have with someone of the exact same age who shares nothing else.

"You'll be friends, you're both ten" didn't even make sense when I was ten.

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!!!!

Judith Butler is 66, though? Jack Halberstam, Pat Califia, Gayle Rubin, Susan Stryker - all in their 60s. Christine Burns is 70. Stephen Whittle's late 60s. James Morton must be up there since he's talked about being at uni in the '80s.

As for the politicians advocating replacing sex with gender in law and policy: Nicola Sturgeon's in her fifties. Shirley-Anne Somerville, Shona Robison, Caroline Nokes, Keir Starmer, and David Lammy, too. Even the SGP honchos are getting up there - Patrick Harvie is turning 50!! Justin Trudeau and Joseph Muscat must be around 50 as well. Pablo Iglesias is in his forties and even Irene Montero is pushing 35. Enda Kenny is easily 70. And Joe Biden is 80!!

Granted, most people born in 1997-2012 or so aren't in a position (yet) to lead a country or significantly influence policy or culture as a "big name". My point is that while there's a lot of creativity and innovation and progressive activism going on in many areas, I'm really not seeing a lot new emerging in terms of "the transgender thing" (to quote your intro post) that most people here would bother to oppose. It mostly seems to be rehashings of material and thought that was emerging from academia and in cutting-edge activism and fledgeling policy institutes in the early '90s - right around, or a little before, when the first Zers were born.

That OP is hilarious! Especially as the cool Gen Z kids aren't into all that, it's a niche fad that only involves a few less trendy (to be kind), middle-class kids. It's extremist, not mainstream.

My Gen Z daughter thinks gender woo is bollocks but keeps her head down.

Interesting that my post speculating on OP’s identity albeit rather obliquely without naming any names, was deleted so quickly. 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

I don’t think I was “troll hunting,” but then I don’t think it’s ever been clearly defined what that is! But for the record I was not accusing OP of being a troll.

Sorry I missed it now!

those Viz cartoons were like a sledgehammer and only repeating tropes and caricatures that were done far better by Private Eye in their Wimmin strip.

I wear docs and dungarees. So do most of the Gen Zs i know. Docs and dresses, docs and miniskirts docs and bloody everything. It means nothing at all.

Now I’m nostalgic for the days when a ‘testicle bearer’ meant Buster Gonad’s wheelbarrow.

This.

Makes me quite nostalgic for y misogynist flatmate at university who thought, "lesbian" was an insult. Bless his ignorant little heart.

I actually thought the castration anxiety expressed by the OP's choice of cartoons suggests the TRA type of MRA we usually get on this board, although perhaps one of the old codger types who's been explicitly anti-feminist in the past.

The younger ones usually pretend to be feminists, and wouldn't deploy the same tropes.

(I genuinely have no idea if this is "troll hunting!" I'm talking types not individuals so it shouldn't be?)

The OP's prose style reminded me of a certain former newsreader....

careful 🤐

Ah

What a truly vile sentence that last one was, to post on a feminist board on a site called Mumsnet.

Still, you’ve got to hand it to Gen Z for freaking out the X’ers, no?

Who inevitably we’re their own walking stereotypes.

OP, you are presumably of the age of those you deem ‘freaked out’.

Is there something you need to talk about?

Very few people are ‘walking stereotypes’ - keeping up the pretence 24/7 probably impossible.

Are you finding it difficult to keep up the pretence?

Still, you’ve got to hand it to Gen Z for freaking out the X’ers, no?

you keep saying that but you have no evidence for it at all. Lots of tattoos? meh, Blue/Pink/Purple hair? Gen X were punks ffs.
Men in dresses & make up? Gen X grew up with David Bowie, Glam Rock, Lily Savage, Dame Edna, Danny la Rue, Adam Ant (yeah), Boy George.

Our schtick was: wear a dress and make up if you want. They are people clothes and you're people.

Most Gen X i know are really cross about reinforcing the gender stereotypes we fought so hard to banish.

And that is without starting on racial and sexual inclusivity and equality that has made real progress in our lifetimes.

Pesonally? I'm alternately laughing at them for thinking they're so edgy and original, shaking my head in sadness that these (equality, look how you like) battles are going to have to be fought and won. Again. Laughing at the absoulte batshittery of being scared to use a men's toilet (as a trans woman), shaking with fear and shock if they are "misgendered". Their inability to be in a town with women who are talking about their opinions on the current thinking/laws/situations without screeching, shouting and threatening. And so on and so on.

Yeah, the only freaking out I’m seeing from Gen X happens when TRAs are violent towards women wanting to speak or when men are waving their dicks around in spas, changing rooms, etc.. Presumably that’s the sort of thing that merits a pat on the back from the OP, but to me it looks like good old-fashioned male supremacy.

But you wouldn’t be here would you unless you objcted to some combo of the concept of transgender/self ID/presence in women’s spaces etc.

In sum: they freaked you out.

They did their generational job.

You weren't as cool and tolerant as you through you were.

There’s pages of Gen X’ers freaking out over a tiny number of transgender bods on Mumsnet.

Do you really think such a tiny number of people are going to “set back” womanhood because some of them present in a traditionally feminine way?