Not Even Not Zen 427: Biomythography - Note 138: On Generation X, Part V

On Generation X, Part V

41. AIDS Started an Un-Sexual Revolution

AIDS made for a major difference from the hippie generation. Early in the Generation X college experience, the news services ran stories on herpes transmission. The AIDS crisis was beginning at the same time but no one knew it. Hospitals started to notice a series of mysterious illnesses. After a few years and a lot of suspicions, doctors managed to draw connections between the illnesses. 

Finally, a researcher traced the cause back to a single virus, HIV. Researchers developed a test for HIV. Still, none of this really changed anyone's behavior. The major news organizations treated AIDS with an emotionless sense of remove.

When folks who received blood transfusions started getting AIDS, however, public awareness spiked. Behaviors didn't change but everyone became suspicious of the nation's blood supply. (Regrettably, the news made some people reluctant to give blood.) After a few more years, the World Health Organization started a campaign to raise awareness about AIDS. Eventually, the awareness efforts started to work. Herpes and AIDS hit in the middle of Generation X. If you were on the older side, maybe you got in on a more progressive, forgiving dating culture. If you were on the younger side, though, you might have been scared of sex before you even entered puberty.

42. We Learned Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism promoted the idea that different groups could coexist. It diverged from the melting pot concept in a small but significant way. The melting pot expected us to blend and become roughly the same. The 'salad bowl' approach of multiculturalism expected us to stay different. In it, our American and world sub-cultures could remain distinct while being enjoyed by everyone. That was the idea, anyway.

For me, the movement began with playing cowboys and indians. I know, Gen X childhood came before the official effort to promote multiple cultures. Yet as I was growing up, I noticed with some relief that it was becoming more and more acceptable to play the 'injun' in our pre-adolescent games. Even though the cowboy remained the main hero, the Sioux warrior or Navajo maiden came to be seen as honorable. They got respect. The game changed.

Music came next, I think. Countries that once had been colonized started sending their music back to the colonizers. Fusions took place like ska, afrobeat, and folk punk. Other cultures simply started finding markets in American minds, ears, and hearts for things like Bhangra. In schools, we started to learn literature and history from around the world. 

43. Generation X Grew Up Without Food Delivery 

This seems like an awfully small change. I nearly felt wasn't significant enough to make the list. Still, our generation had a different relationship to food than the ones before or after. Meal delivery, microwave cooking, production monopolies, and distribution systems brought everyone more processed food.

More and more processed. Quicker. Easier. And generally more expensive.

Eating a bag of green beans or boiling some potatoes is still fairly cheap. A lot of Gen X meals from our childhood are affordable although they are not fast. Eating chips from a can is fast but it costs more. Generation X grew up with dinner at home. Most of us had a vegetable, a bit of meat, and a potato on our plate. We were allowed to eat out on special occassions. 

Then came convenience foods. We had TV dinners. We ate fast meals at restaurants. The restaurants themselves got faster and faster. Places started delivering pizzas to our homes. Finally, after the Internet, a flood of deliveries spilled out into the food marketplace. Now there are generations who don't remember when getting a delivery was not an option. There are generations who don't remember cooking without a microwave. 

During my childhood and adolescence, my father spent four or five hours on a Sunday afternoon making spaghetti sauce from scratch. He was right that it was better than anything we can get from a store or from a delivery. It took the whole afternoon, though. It was an era when people devoted more time to cooking and accepted the need to start with raw ingredients. We didn't know it could be different. At the time, it usually couldn't. 

AFTERWORD

There are a few things that certainly qualify as generational differences but I don't consider as defining our generation. 

A. We Learned Cursive

The change in skill doesn't translate to a change in culture. It is cool to be able to read old documents like the Declaration of Independence from a copy of the manuscript. It makes history more personal, more emotionally deep and effective. Still, it doesn't seem significant.

B. We Had Encouragement to Experiment

I'm not convinced this is true. We did have samples of uranium ore in our rock collections. We did have chemistry sets, gunpowder, plywood, and free time. But I'm not convinced parental attitudes (or societal attitudes) were more encouraging. In some ways, they were pretty repressive about free-thinking.

C. We Had the Birth Control Pill

This doesn't make the cut partly because of timing - the pill affected Baby Boomers before Generation X - but also because it did make the cut in this Generation X list, actually. I felt it was a major part of the women's rights movement in the 1970s, so I included it there. 

D. We had Drive-In Movies

Again, this item affected Boomers more. Also, although the American 'car culture' was significant, I think drive-ins were trivial, culturally. 

E. Color Television

This one is timed correctly. But as a generational difference, I don't think color had much effect. I'm willing to listen if anyone thinks they have a convincing argument otherwise.

F. Music Became More Mobile

America progressed from phonographs to LPs, to reel-to-reel, to 8-tracks, to cassette tapes, and to the Walkman and other portable music players. I don't think the technology made for an important societal change, though. In fact, I think it was less significant than putting wheels on luggage.

G. We Remember Luggage Without Wheels

For heaven's sake, it took too long for someone to think of this. But it's still not important. We all have weaker arms and backs, now. (And we probably have fewer injuries.) That's about it.

H. We Remember Blizzards

There are generational differences in weather patterns but they are definitely not universal. They're all local. Changes in snowfall happened for some people in some areas, maybe. But I'm not buying this as a real thing at all, culturally. 

I. Global Warming

Okay, a global warming trend did re-start in the 1970s. Is it any different for Generation X than for other generations? I don't think it is. In fact, you can make a good case it had a bigger effect on Millenials. 

J. Mimeographs

Aside from the various fanzines that got published via mimeographs and early photocopiers, I don't think this type of technology made for a societal effect. Fanzines were cool. There is that. Other generations didn't have that mixed sense of looking up at a magazine rack in a music store and thinking, a) how amatuerish, b) how cool, c) how crazy and determined of someone.

K. Punk

I wanted to include punk music. It defined my tastes and defined some of my friendships. Punk culture departed from hippie attitudes. It began the next generation, musically. But is music by itself enough when we were a "baby bust" compared to the previous generation? Were punk and new wave influential enough? They didn't get the airplay of early rock and roll in the 1960s.

If punk is influential enough, reggae could be, too. And ska, death metal, the 1990s country music revival, grunge, Dr. Demento, and Eric Idle singing "Always Look on the Bright Side." Maybe together, they are. Maybe.

L. We Saw Horror Movies

The gore movies, not the Hitchcock-style films, coincided with our generation. They got popular, so I guess we watched them. Did they make a difference? I don't think so. 

M. We Played Dungeons and Dragons

We learned to play games that were not like bridge, spades, hearts, or canasta. D&D did not pit two players against each other like in chess. It didn't even pit a half-dozen players against each other like in Risk or Diplomacy. D&D let people form teams. It allowed game play without a defined goal.

You made your own goals. And that's something. 

For punk music and D&D, I'm willing to listen if anyone thinks they have a convincing argument they defined Generation X.