So I randomly just watched The Breakfast Club again, jajaja. It's just so comforting to me, like I really can't relate to most of the things going on w them but it's comforting all the same. My mom and I are v obsessed w all the living generations, esp Gen X (bc that's her) and the millennials, and it's just so fascinating bc Gen X is basically defined by anarchy or sth. They just can't figure it out: they never have (as we can see from all the John Hughes movies) and they never will. We were trying to come up w some defining Gen X-ers bc it's so easy to come up with defining millennials (winners like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Mark Zuckerberg, Kim Kardashian, etc.), but like... There aren't any. Ben Stiller? Jerry Seinfeld? I guess so. But they make for some pretty pathetic spokespeople.
I'm a Gen Z-er (also known as my fave word, a boomlet) so i'm v hopeful for us younguns. Hopefully we can reconstruct the lame world the millennials haphazardly built for us with the support of their Gen X parents: parents who grew up children in families ravaged by divorce (a factor which, according to The Wall Street Journal, ended about half of all marriages in the 70s) and consequently blossomed into smothers and manchildren so their own kids wouldn't have to grow up too early.
But omg, that WSJ article along w some others (yeah i may have just done some more research on this jajaja) was so enlightening!! All the generations totally f-cked each other up!!! The baby boomers rebelled against their stagnant surroundings and listened to rock n roll and became hippies. They wanted to feel young and alive or sth so they felt pressure to look/act/stay young even after having kids, so they left their kids unsupervised and alone so they could live a little (tbh sounds totally like the millennials. But they do say that children relate to their grandparents better than their parents so ok yeah sure). So Gen X felt cheated out of their childhoods and set out to save the souls of their spawn (jaja i love writing rn) with Baby on Board stickers and leashes for their 4-year-olds. Cute!! So now the millennials are growing up and they simply cannot live w/o the care their parents lavished upon them, and bc they cannot think for themselves and figure out how to be adults they're the "boomerang generation" that just returns back to their parents' house, which works out fine for the love-starved Gen X-ers and the lazy millennials, but where does that leave the rest of us?! Like, when I come of age there's gonna be SO much work to do. Ugh. But I have so many reforms in mind already!! I'm fully stocked w ideas. But rn the point of my life is to survive being a teenager, so I'll focus on that for now and get moving after I graduate and go skydiving and stuff.
Ok but I can't resist. Some starter ideas:
-A fashion/lifestyle magazine called Boomlets!! Kind of my take on a younger, less existential Rookie mixed w HONY. It will involve street style worn by girls of all shapes, sizes, colors etc. along w some kind of background on them, a la Brandon Stanton!
-A girl band ALSO called Boomlets!!! Still trying to recruit my friends to do this. (Ok i realize these aren't like global reforms or sth but it's a start)
-Preface: Ok, this is actually a good one. A project that protests lookism for women (the concept that while men are judged by strength and talent, women are totally just based off of how hot they are), except I don't really know how to do this w/o involving a burqa-style getup that masks how we really look. But that's just weird. Idk how exactly to do this. But I'm sure i'll get many earnest recruits for this puppy too bc tbh it's pretty genius
-A foto series of different places in Newark, Queens, etc. that look pretty grody to the typical person's eye but they realize that the places are actually beautiful bc they're full of character and heart and as my dad says about Queens, "it's the blood of New York City."
And what even is this "beautiful" craze anyway? Everyone's all about "oh yes I love beautiful things" and recently this crap about "everyone is beautiful" and of course the feminists protesting "You don't know you're beautiful/That's what makes you beautiful." So basically it's just a common idea that girls should be allowed to feel beautiful themselves and it's ok to have high self esteem and no matter what you look like, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
Not that that's a bad thing, but how about this: ENOUGH WITH THE BEAUTIFUL!!! Like, SERIOUSLY!!! What if a girl doesn't WANT to feel beautiful? What if a girl wants to focus on being FUNNY or SMART or a LEADER instead of basing everything off of looks?? It's just so unfair. Obviously lookism applies to guys too to a degree, but it doesn't hold them back. This would never happen to a man looking for an office job.
But everything is just about looks, looks, looks. E-NOUUUUGHH. Even on my favorite song by my favorite band (a cover of Call Me Baby by The Ark, a Korean girl group that wears super badass clothing)...:
...Even on that, people's comments focus on their looks and how they can be sexy and pretty even dressing like tomboys. Ok, yes, but can't we just focus on the fact that they are SUCH incredibly talented dancers and singers, and of course that they have the best sense of style, instead of how they can be beautiful even though they're not ladylike? Maybe they don't want to be beautiful. Maybe they want people to say "waaaahh they are TOUGH!!" Just an idea.
But fashion is different, like it's an optional thing. It's basically an extension of your personality. you have control over it and you can change it, unlike your actual body and looks and whatever. So it's really totally different. And I just can't deal w not being able to wear what I want bc i am SO into fashion and clothes and personal expression, and it is so unfair to have a polyvore and then go to H&M to try on your dream clothes and have them all look like total shit on you. I mean REALLY. And then you try on a pair of like cotton shorts bc none of the denim ones fit you right, and your mom tells you it's a really flattering look for you, and bc you're about to have a meltdown in the dressing room you just buy them, but at home you're trying them on and you're just tearing up at the mirror, bc ok, sure, they say you look good in these and they're good for you body type, but what if you don't WANT to wear these stupid pajama clothes to look good?? What if you want to wear the short overalls you saw in the store, and kneesocks, and crop tops and cheetah print ankle booties (at this pt I'm just rattling off the whole H&M fall catalog) and skinny jeans and all of it w/o feeling like puking in the mirror? It just feels SO unfair. So, so unfair. And I have the feeling that that mini rant had nothing to do w the point I was trying to get across here, but it came out naturally and now it's over and I really gotta sleep. It's so irritating that I'm up at 6:30 am and my mind only starts functioning now, at half an hr to midnight. Ughhh. Buenas noches
I'm a Gen Z-er (also known as my fave word, a boomlet) so i'm v hopeful for us younguns. Hopefully we can reconstruct the lame world the millennials haphazardly built for us with the support of their Gen X parents: parents who grew up children in families ravaged by divorce (a factor which, according to The Wall Street Journal, ended about half of all marriages in the 70s) and consequently blossomed into smothers and manchildren so their own kids wouldn't have to grow up too early.
But omg, that WSJ article along w some others (yeah i may have just done some more research on this jajaja) was so enlightening!! All the generations totally f-cked each other up!!! The baby boomers rebelled against their stagnant surroundings and listened to rock n roll and became hippies. They wanted to feel young and alive or sth so they felt pressure to look/act/stay young even after having kids, so they left their kids unsupervised and alone so they could live a little (tbh sounds totally like the millennials. But they do say that children relate to their grandparents better than their parents so ok yeah sure). So Gen X felt cheated out of their childhoods and set out to save the souls of their spawn (jaja i love writing rn) with Baby on Board stickers and leashes for their 4-year-olds. Cute!! So now the millennials are growing up and they simply cannot live w/o the care their parents lavished upon them, and bc they cannot think for themselves and figure out how to be adults they're the "boomerang generation" that just returns back to their parents' house, which works out fine for the love-starved Gen X-ers and the lazy millennials, but where does that leave the rest of us?! Like, when I come of age there's gonna be SO much work to do. Ugh. But I have so many reforms in mind already!! I'm fully stocked w ideas. But rn the point of my life is to survive being a teenager, so I'll focus on that for now and get moving after I graduate and go skydiving and stuff.
Ok but I can't resist. Some starter ideas:
-A fashion/lifestyle magazine called Boomlets!! Kind of my take on a younger, less existential Rookie mixed w HONY. It will involve street style worn by girls of all shapes, sizes, colors etc. along w some kind of background on them, a la Brandon Stanton!
-A girl band ALSO called Boomlets!!! Still trying to recruit my friends to do this. (Ok i realize these aren't like global reforms or sth but it's a start)
-Preface: Ok, this is actually a good one. A project that protests lookism for women (the concept that while men are judged by strength and talent, women are totally just based off of how hot they are), except I don't really know how to do this w/o involving a burqa-style getup that masks how we really look. But that's just weird. Idk how exactly to do this. But I'm sure i'll get many earnest recruits for this puppy too bc tbh it's pretty genius
-A foto series of different places in Newark, Queens, etc. that look pretty grody to the typical person's eye but they realize that the places are actually beautiful bc they're full of character and heart and as my dad says about Queens, "it's the blood of New York City."
And what even is this "beautiful" craze anyway? Everyone's all about "oh yes I love beautiful things" and recently this crap about "everyone is beautiful" and of course the feminists protesting "You don't know you're beautiful/That's what makes you beautiful." So basically it's just a common idea that girls should be allowed to feel beautiful themselves and it's ok to have high self esteem and no matter what you look like, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
Not that that's a bad thing, but how about this: ENOUGH WITH THE BEAUTIFUL!!! Like, SERIOUSLY!!! What if a girl doesn't WANT to feel beautiful? What if a girl wants to focus on being FUNNY or SMART or a LEADER instead of basing everything off of looks?? It's just so unfair. Obviously lookism applies to guys too to a degree, but it doesn't hold them back. This would never happen to a man looking for an office job.
But everything is just about looks, looks, looks. E-NOUUUUGHH. Even on my favorite song by my favorite band (a cover of Call Me Baby by The Ark, a Korean girl group that wears super badass clothing)...:
...Even on that, people's comments focus on their looks and how they can be sexy and pretty even dressing like tomboys. Ok, yes, but can't we just focus on the fact that they are SUCH incredibly talented dancers and singers, and of course that they have the best sense of style, instead of how they can be beautiful even though they're not ladylike? Maybe they don't want to be beautiful. Maybe they want people to say "waaaahh they are TOUGH!!" Just an idea.
But fashion is different, like it's an optional thing. It's basically an extension of your personality. you have control over it and you can change it, unlike your actual body and looks and whatever. So it's really totally different. And I just can't deal w not being able to wear what I want bc i am SO into fashion and clothes and personal expression, and it is so unfair to have a polyvore and then go to H&M to try on your dream clothes and have them all look like total shit on you. I mean REALLY. And then you try on a pair of like cotton shorts bc none of the denim ones fit you right, and your mom tells you it's a really flattering look for you, and bc you're about to have a meltdown in the dressing room you just buy them, but at home you're trying them on and you're just tearing up at the mirror, bc ok, sure, they say you look good in these and they're good for you body type, but what if you don't WANT to wear these stupid pajama clothes to look good?? What if you want to wear the short overalls you saw in the store, and kneesocks, and crop tops and cheetah print ankle booties (at this pt I'm just rattling off the whole H&M fall catalog) and skinny jeans and all of it w/o feeling like puking in the mirror? It just feels SO unfair. So, so unfair. And I have the feeling that that mini rant had nothing to do w the point I was trying to get across here, but it came out naturally and now it's over and I really gotta sleep. It's so irritating that I'm up at 6:30 am and my mind only starts functioning now, at half an hr to midnight. Ughhh. Buenas noches
