TALKIN' 'BOUT MY GENERATION.*

This positive review for I'll Be Damned makes me think it would be a show I'd like. But what's with the critic's swipe at Millennials?

"Though this Jaradoa Theater production is set in the '80s, perhaps to justify barfy costumes, Louis has the bad qualities of Millennials, not Gen-Xers—he's entitled, virginal, and coddled by his helicopter mom..."

I've seen critics doing this a lot lately on the interwebs and it kind of bugs me. I mean, I guess it makes sense. Everybody hates people younger than them. I know I do! I'm the oldest possible age to be considered a Millennial. And it's not like I disagree with that assessment of my generation, either. It's just that:

1. It reeks of tacky jealousy and old fogey-ism. "Those crazy kids with their sexting and their chatroulettes!"
2. It dismisses an entire generation of people and, admit it or don't, there's much about Millennials that's admirable too.

Why, that's like dismissing baby boomers for being selfish, sell-out hypocrites (they are) while ignoring all the amazing things they accomplished (which they did.) That's like calling Gen X lazy and shiftless (they are) but ignoring... um... irony? Grunge? It's kind of unfair, is all.

*This is the title of a song from a long time ago or something.

Comments

[Keith Rohn]

what's weird is that we're both Gen X (1961-1981) and Gen Y (1973-1982), some Millenials are a part of Gen Y, except only those born 1980 or after. so the moral of the story is, it's all a bunch of BS designed to marginalize and categorize us based on age.