Gather ’round for all the latest anniversaries, comebacks, and farewells. This is the latest roundup of news links for and about Generation X. It’s been a tough month for Baby Boomers as we’ve bid farewell to Glenn Frey, Alan Rickman, David Bowie, and Natalie Cole. As a writer for the Texarkana Gazette so aptly stated,
“And to those members of Generation X—those born in the latter 1960s through the early 1980s. Don’t get smug. You’re next.”
Gen X Satire
Thank you to the readers who occasionally send me links including this cutting satire in The Onion that underscores the ongoing of drama of Generation X kids of divorce. Click on Middle-Aged Woman So Tired Of Going Back And Forth Between Divorced Parents’ Nursing Homes for a chuckle.
Anniversaries
The 30th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion is January 28. My friend Chloe of Light From A Pixel has something very special planned. Be sure to visit her blog on the anniversary. In the meantime, check out her post on a favorite Gen X childhood pastime, the View Master.
Ironic by Alanis Morissette’s was one of the most beloved and memorable videos of the 1990s. It debuted 20 years ago on January 22, 1996. The car in the video is not just any old ugly sedan. It was a Lincoln Continental MkV. I love this car!
X Files Comeback
The X Files makes a comeback tonight on Fox. In honor of its return, The Federalist published a post highlighting the five ways the X Files defines Generation X. This is a great article with some fresh thoughts and observations. Here’s an excerpt:
It may be hard for millennials (who can’t even agree how many genders there are) to believe, but in the 1990s gender was not a particularly fraught issue. Scully is an FBI agent. She isn’t a female FBI agent. She isn’t fighting the patriarchy or breaking glass ceilings. She is just doing her job. She is in every way Fox Mulder’s equal. While there is sexual chemistry from the very start, it does not define her character.
This is really how things were. Prior to the current fads of hypersensitivity regarding identity, gender was simpler and less vital. Scully is not hampered by the fact that she is a woman. Importantly, neither is she advantaged by supposedly womanly traits.
Several other new sites have weighed in on the return including Salon, the publication with the most Generation X-related news stories. Here is an excerpt from The dream of the ‘90s is alive on TV: The X-Files, Full House and Twin Peaks revivals feed off a lost sense of mystery:
It is the right time for ‘90s nostalgia. In 2011 and 2012, the thinking media did a lot of soul-searching about the resurgence of the ‘90s. Some hypothesized a 40-year cycle for being ready to look back at the past; others suggested 20, or 15; others dismissed the notion of a cycle of nostalgia entirely. But it is true that, regardless of whether we’re ready for nostalgia, the ‘90s have been back, waiting to be reminisced over, for the last several years. And despite a veneer of catering to Generation X, with “Twin Peaks” and the Kurt Cobain biopic “Montage of Heck,” this nostalgia track is for their freer-spending and more populous younger siblings, the millennials.
What are the years for Generation X?
The defining years for various generations are the subject of ongoing research. Historians, government agencies, and marketing firms all seem to disagree by a few years as to when a generation begins and ends. I have always relied on William Strauss and Neil Howe’s parameters for Generation X — 1961 to 1981. But, a reader wrote to me and sent me a link to a 2012 article by a Harvard researcher that puts the years at 1965 to 1984. What do you think? I love research and citing new sources in this ongoing debate and have updated the article, Who Is Generation X? to include this latest opinion.
Too Long In The Bluetooth
This piece by Shari Low made me laugh. Read: I’m Far Too Long In The Bluetooth To Keep Up With This New Fangled Technology. Here’s an excerpt:
“My teenage sons tell me I need to upload them to my iTunes account, then download them to my phone, which I then need to pair via Bluetooth with the car’s sound system and… sigh…”
Oscar Dresses By Decade, Color, Age
This interactive Oscar infographic is terrific. You can search the infographic by dress, age, color and decade. Only two green dresses have been Oscar “winners” and both were worn by Kate Winslet, a Gen-Xer born in 1975.
A Few More Gen X Gems
13 Signs You’re Stuck Between Millennials and Generation X
The Creepy Beauty of VCR Errors
Blossom: The Girl Who Was the 90s
Grunge, rap music movements of the early 1990s became Gen X’s soundtrack
Cycle of Life: Baby Boomers starting to see more celebrity deaths