And Now, This Week's Column
Dedicated to the late Anne Bancroft
Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
At the GapNot a lot to do with clothes
by Wendel Potter
June 7, 2005
I really don't think a generation gap exists between adults and teenagers these days. I think it's more of a misunderstanding. And we should probably make more of an effort to clear it up.
Back in the 1960's, when I was a teenager, a true gap (more like a chasm) existed between youth and adults. We were of a generation that longed to express itself in a truly new and radical way.
Now that's probably not terribly unusual for the adolescents of any era. But with us, there was a strong sense of anti-establishment at the core of our beings and that's what left the adults of that time bewildered and somewhat apprehensive.
We drifted away from our parents, not only in the way we dressed or how we wore our hair or the language we invented ("groovy"..."far out") or in the music we listened to, but also politically, and that was what confounded the adults of our day.
Goddamn, these little boogers actually have ideas in those long-haired drug-addled heads! They have a vision!
Throw into the mix the new liberalism that was creeping into our movies and books along with the developing casual attitude toward sex and the Establishment of that time found itself not only mystified, but really bugged. That turned to outrage.
They're going to take over. Later for sure, if not now. We need to whip them into submission. Man your battle stations! Good god, call out the National Guard!
By the way, they did call out the National Guard. And nearly forty years later, here we are. The world is still spinning madly, the Republicans are still in charge, and we are at war. How ironic.
So despite the faults we perceive in the culture of our young people today, we must remember that it all has its roots in the youth culture of 40 years ago. If we find ourselves disdaining the attitudes and mores of today's teenagers, we must remember that we are the Frankensteins who created these monsters. They sprang from our Hippie/Yippie loins.
Frankly, we are probably closer to them in attitudes and beliefs than we care to admit, and much, much closer than our generation could ever have been to that of our parents.
So the best way for us to get along with our children is to give them the benefit of some doubt and at least attempt to understand them.
Take music for example. Perhaps we should do a little research so we at least have some clue when we hear our teenagers discussing the names of today's musical groups and rap artists.
Then, when your child asks you, "What do you think of Eminem?", you don't respond, "I prefer plain over peanut and I like they way they melt in your mouth, not in your hand."
I realize that to us adults, Puff was a magic dragon and P Diddy sounds like something the dog does in the backyard. Of course when I was in high school, my parents thought Beatles were only one notch above cockroaches and they didn't want either of them in the house.
Maybe, too, we judge our children's sense of fashion with too critical an eye. In some respects, the style of dress hasn't really changed much. We wore bell-bottom pants. Today, kids wear bells, too. Come to think of it, not only do they bell at the bottoms, they also tend to bell at the butt.
Ear-piercing became popular among young people of the Sixties. Of course, you didn't run across the more extreme cases of multiple-piercing-self-mutilation that you see today.
I know a guy whose daughter has had one ear pierced 17 times. He told me, "Seventeen holes in her ear and she still can't seem to hear me."
My generation took a stand against racism and was influenced by music with lyrics like:
"Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now"
Here's some lyrics from one of today's popular rap groups, Fifty Cent:
"All a nigga really need is a lil bit
I wanna unbutton your pants just a lil bit
Take 'em off and pull 'em down just a lil bit
Get to kissin' and touchin' a lil bit
Get to lickin' and (bleep) a lil bit"
You know, the more I think about it, I was wrong. There is no misunderstanding between adults and youth today. There really is a definite gap and it's about the size of the Grand Canyon.
Copyright 2005 Wendel Potter
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