That was peak aesthetics.
Was?
You too stray far from the light.But we like the dark.
Darkness, for dark deeds.
BY FAR!
Gen X: Haha, those millenials sure looked stupid as kids!
Also Gen X:
Aw man, I clicked that thinking it was going to be Grunge or even this sort of thing.
I always forget that gen x also includes people way older than me.
Seriously that’s some 80s shit my sister was into but she’s 9 years older than me, meanwhile it was more Biggie and Wu-Tang for me when they dropped around 93-94 when I was a teen. It was all baggy clothes.
Starter jackets, timbs, raiders… Fubu… Billabong… Wallet chains. The longer the wallet chain the more dominace you had over peers.
It all started with a Starter Coat… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Kc8GVUBRI
Give them a break, they had no other accepted way to explore their sexuality
/s but also not /s
Yeah that’s just facts. This Bowie type shit is ANYTHING BUT straight, that’s what makes it iconic.
The straights have always copied/been inspired by queer fashion, just like white america with black american music genres (jazz, rock, blues, r&b, rap).Absolutely, there’s a long history of the “in-group” co-opting culture from the “out-group” because it’s seen as exotic and transgressive. Was it hypocritical for such a homophobic generation to idolize queer icons, only so long as they were cool and made good music? On a cultural level, yeah. On an individual level, depends on the individual and their specific beliefs and actions
Boomers: Haha, Gen X sure looked stupid as kids!
Also Boomers:
Given a better quality photo, the women on the left and right really wouldn’t be out of place nowadays.
The boomer’s had everything better. That fashion works for me.
But everyone was so much thinner back then. The average person was so much hotter.
The only thing that’s really improved is people’s teeth.
But everyone was so much thinner back then. The average person was so much hotter.
Because they inherited an economy with actual food and replaced it with “food” filled with industrial inventions like corn syrup
And these are the ones scared of gender/LGBTQ politics… We know why now…
Is… is that the rep we have? I sort of thought that was boomers and just, well, bigots from every generation. Gen X was also sex positive feminism 3rd wave and the beginning of intersectionalism.
Guess it depends on where you live. I find a lot of people around me that are 45 and up and don’t live in a more wealthy area are basically that way.
I saw a lot flip sides since 2020… From being open minded to closed. From repping Obama to repping trump and the coup.
It’s really weird to be honest.
I don’t think it is about flipping a coin between open-minded and close-minded but about radicalization. While it is harder to see with QAnon, radicalization be it right, left (although you have to go really far on the horseshoe), or religious is staunchly anti-intellectualistic. Once you believe in ideas or at least do not see them as really distasteful, it gets easier to go towards more and more batshit insane ideas.
While I am not sure if there is actual research on how age affects radicalization, research on radicalization has identified certain things that make it likelier for a person to be radicalized. Vulnerability, marginalization, and othering are all pretty common. To extend it there might be an age group vulnerability of 45 and up age group because of either being empty nesters or kids at least starting to be a lot more independent.
There is also somewhat of a domino effect. People like to be part of a group. If people don’t give any legitimacy to radicalized viewpoints, it makes it harder to be radicalized. The problem with this is also how hidden ideas can become mainstream as has at least in Western countries happened with the alt-right, they can reach a scary critical mass. Once you have been tempered with completely crazy viewpoints at one point thinking JFK Jr will be resurrected is not that weird anymore.
Over a decade ago when I started to get really worried about the rise of fascism in the West, my mom thought I was insane. Now we have had (not American) actual neo-Nazi as minister and no one of the ministerial parties thought it was a huge enough deal to actually not do it. In my books that means they all are neo-Nazies. My mom also doesn’t think I am insane anymore. The tools they used to gain power are not new. We are just not taught to identify them. I was because it would be a pretty bad idea to have someone in my profession if not aware of signs of radicalization.
Even education can only do so much to make up for a complete lack of cognitive ability.
Even education can only do so much to make up for a complete lack of cognitive ability.
Even education can only do so much to make up for a complete lack of cognitive ability.
Even education can only do so much to make up for a complete lack of cognitive ability.
Even education can only do so much to make up for a complete lack of cognitive ability.
We really need to step out of the idea that radicalization only happens to people who are somehow slow or uneducated. It might make you more likely to fall for it, but cognitive ability and education will not mean you will not end up there as well. Issue with the anti-intellectualism of the alt-right is not if someone themselves has education but if they are willing to listen to other people who do. If no one is an expert for example racist ideas of the alt-right about biological differences can’t be refuted. Which is probably partially where it comes from times quite a lot.
Everyone likes to think they have cognitive ability. If we just think radicalization happens only to stupid people, and you are not stupid, getting a person de-radicalized is going to be a lot harder. Thinking that we as people with cognitive ability can’t be radicalized will also make it easier to fall for it because you can’t be radicalized.
Instead of intelligence or education, we should focus on the trifecta of vulnerability, marginalization, and othering. That’s a better predictor.
(And no, I do not actually disagree about the ideas being idiocy, just that falling for them are not just for idiots)
I disagree on the fundamental level that if someone “intelligent” chooses to follow the ideas of idiocy it’s not proof that the intelligent can be swayed, but that the individual is objectively less intelligent that previously assumed. This is reinforced when someone more intelligent isn’t swayed by said idiocy.
I’ve also seen a lot of self identified progressive Xers and boomers that need to be explicitly taught these things. One was a terf before he looked around as his fellow terfs. Another was oddly possessive of Bugs Bunny in drag when he found out that some consider that episode a pro-trans episode. A whole lot of them don’t pick up on the anti environmental subtext in their comic book movies.
Yikes that sounds rough!
We have had problems over here where we lose people down an antivax q-anon abbit hole, but it seems to affect all ages. I think maybe it has something to do with underlying mental health vulnerabilities.
I think back then you could do “gay” things without being seen as gay so it was okay.
It was okay to dress like that if everyone knew you were out smashing loads of chicks.
But not people are going to think you’re gay so it’s really different.
Da packages.
*dank memes
Are there any movies that capture this period in time?
I want to say Eurotrip
I don’t know about movies but you just want to feel that mood check out Invader Zim, the cartoon from her shirt
Why couldn’t i have been born a year earlier?!?
This was like, 5% of millennials. Trust me, I was one of them. We got our asses kicked for dressing this way. Most everyone else either did “gangsta” style with low-hanging pants and Timberland boots/Jordans, or “preppy” style with a boring-ass polo shirt and khakis.
Emocore stuff was also later on and seen generally as a pop-poser spinoff of punk and metal culture. It got uniquely hated on by both mainstream and alternative cliques because of this.
I personally went through a pretty extended punk phase and never really got picked on. I actually made plenty of friends with jocks and stoners in high school, while wearing a pretty cringe getup with operation Ivy patches and shit.
I gravitated toward nu-metal/industrial with wide leg JNCO pants and ball-chain necklaces.
I haven’t even heard of “emo” being an actual style until now. I thought it was just goth. Maybe because it’s a couple years after my time. I’m an older millennial, graduated high school in 2000.
Yeah, I’d say Emo really got going after 2000, at least in my experience
Psh, I saw this and immediately thought " I would have wanted to date that girl back in the day". Now I think… “If I met a girl who was my age rocking that style… I would want to talk to them for sure”
-born in 89’
Same. Also born in 1989 and I would have had a huge crush on this girl in 2006. Haha
Yeah the emo look definitely worked for me… We didn’t have a lot of them in my country though, the alt style was more punk/dirty techno, or metalheads but the girls didn’t look like that. Shame…
Don’t forget about thrift store style! Which wasn’t a style back then. Advantage though, us thrift store kids could switch styles daily. ‘Gangsta’ Monday, ‘emo’ Wednesday, poser Friday.
Wouldn’t that just be poser every day?
Pretty much lol. Only instead of going to the store to try you just end up with what you get and make it work from there.
boring-ass polo shirt and khakis
I feel attacked.
I don’t know where people grew up that actually had cliques like that. It was just t-shirts and shorts or jeans while I was in school. There was no real trend chasing or trying to look gangster. Southern California here.
Same haha. I do vaguely remember people looking like a much, much more toned down version of this, but yeah this shit was mostly relegated to Youtubers and Hot Topic models.
The use of the word aesthetic as a verb in the last several years blows my mind.
Anyhow, yeah, we dress different when we’re kids. I don’t think too many people are shocked by this.
It’s used as a noun here? I’m confused
“the aesthetic” was always a noun, dude
Yes, not a verb, which is why I’m confused
the verb is aesthetical “It’s not aesthetically pleasing”
That’s an adjective & adverb… “pleasing” is the verb in the example you give, “aesthetically” describes the verb
Surely that’s an adjective and adverb respectively?
They’ve aestheticed
I’m aestheticking right now
Genz aesthetic I swear is just depression meets delirium, and honestly, I can’t blame them lol
That’s pretty much what emo/scene was back in the mid 2000s. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
Depression Meets Delirium is a fantastic psych rock band name
Aw, it’s Ambrehhhh! I still follow her on YouTube (I think, if she still has a channel) and Instagram, lol.
Thes
I’ll paraphrase a twitter comment: man I did not give a single fuck about gen x as a millenial, these posts are so weird. Maybe we’re just more exposed to each other now because of social media
I’m convinced that news outlets and big tech intentionally push ageism / generational-warfare to substitute for class warfare, and divert criticism away from capitalists.
Like who decided to mark off these year ranges and put labels on them anyway, it’s completely arbitrary and meaningless.
Allow me to offer a different perspective from the previous reply: holy frickin shit, I honestly never noticed this before. Tbh I’m not sure about the intentionality behind it though.
I mean, who exactly is intentionally doing this? Intent is important here; if it’s not individually-assignable, and say emerges from a complex series of interactions between various other policies, or instances of individual decision-making - for example - then it seems hard to reasonably place “blame” like that.
This doesn’t preclude taking action against the companies which will be salient for them (e.g. puts financial viability in question, rather than BS fines that amount to parking tickets)… I mean corporations are people too, now, right? Just a thought on how to argue/clarify the premise.
Because otherwise… Yeah, wtf. A lot of dividing lines, a lot of material insecurity, and so on, and nobody has the time - let alone the resources AND perspective simultaneously - to challenge the real dynamic. One which arguably IS being perpetrated with individual intent at multiple scales, and with cancerous impacts (figuratively and literally) on the societies which enable and tolerate them.
I hope you’re being sarcastic because that kind of deranged conspiracy theory nonsense being taken seriously is why this country is so comprehensively fucked in the head.
…also, the whole genx/millenial/genz/etc labels are specifically a thing from marketing. They teach that stuff in business schools because it actually is useful to divide a population like that. The edges are gray, but people squarely in the middle of one of those demographics are more likely to be caricatures of it.
deranged conspiracy theory nonsense
They teach that stuff in business schools because it actually is useful to divide a population like that
Hmm
Demographically there were way more millenials than genx.
The cohorts that are demographic bulges (boomers, millennials) get a lot of media attention (because advertising) and it plays out.
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We’re all still emo/scene kids at heart, it was never a phase mom
Preach. If I could be any age forever it would probably be one of the ones from my days as a scene kid.
I still cry listening to Bright Eyes.
I don’t care what anyone says though. No one can write like Conor Oberst.
xD
Rawr xD
Gotta express my uniqueness by dressing like everyone else
To be fair: The scene was much smaller back then and many emo kids were basically scorned and beaten for the emo and scene aesthetic.
Yup… It was the main reason I stopped wearing make up and dressing like that. The bullying became unbearable.
Would be fun to try it again now, though… But I’m 30 so it’ll probably look dumb lol
I’m nearly 40 and rediscovering my inner goth. Honestly don’t care if it looks “dumb”, I’m having a lot of fun! Just go for it, do what makes you happy.
I’m right there with you. I had been saying to my Wife I was gonna start wearing black nail varnish again at 39 and she basically said don’t.
Started a new job, bloke with a pretty long beard and hair down my back, some older guy takes me under his wing and basically tells me to just be myself, the company loves it. I was showing up to work in a black turtleneck to look a bit more professional and nice than I am.
I had smashed my nails in at work trapping my fingers and had 2 black nails anyway so I just went for it.
Now I’m rocking up to work in a leather jacket and Army boots, Management love me and they’ve taken me off the Agency books and onto theirs.
Not all that Gothy but I’m definitely embracing my inner child more, and Fuck what anyone thinks. I’ve had a team leader tell me I can wear a dress to work if I like lol
Now the natural question here is…has the wife come around? When I declared my desire for a “summer goth cruise witch” aesthetic I’m happy to report my husband was all for it lol.
Oh absolutely she has, it’s just all about trying to keep my inner child in check before I do something silly. She’s the matriarch of a house of boys so she generally takes a stance against silliness whereas I’m usually for it.
While she may make disparaging comments when I’m sat watching TV and doing my nails, she’s also said “I think you look really fit in that picture” about pictures where I’m in full blown Festival garb with my long hair (which she was against me growing) flowing down my back.
In fact, it’s got her going through her own clothes and starting to wear some stuff she usually wouldn’t too. I think she saw that I didn’t get my head kicked in like we did when we were kids and thought “huh”
Yay this makes me happy to hear! Life’s too short to not wear your hair long…or something 😄
Oh absolutely she has, it’s just all about trying to keep my inner child in check before I do something silly. She’s the matriarch of a house of boys so she generally takes a stance against silliness whereas I’m usually for it.
While she may make disparaging comments when I’m sat watching TV and doing my nails, she’s also said “I think you look really fit in that picture” about pictures where I’m in full blown Festival garb with my long hair (which she was against me growing) flowing down my back.
In fact, it’s got her going through her own clothes and starting to wear some stuff she usually wouldn’t too. I think she saw that I didn’t get my head kicked in like we did when we were kids and thought “huh”
The tendency of society to bully people into conformity is honestly one of its worst traits.
why can humans be so incredibly shitty? 😞
Yeah the bullying was my main reason as well. I mean you could still rock that aesthetic to a show, but the most I feel comfortable to do nowadays is black nail polish, lol. I could get away with more on stage probably, but I won’t feel comfortable like that now to be honest. The anxiety and bad experiences cut too deep I guess.
I might go and try it out next week, still got my old clothes somewhere maybe…
Just dig it out and add bits of it to what you usually wear day to day. You don’t have to go full 2006.
