Two Tribes

A recent Guardian article asked ‘are pop tribes a thing of the past?’ Funny, I was just thinking the same thing myself.

When Husband complains there’s no good music any more I tell him it’s got to be there. It’s just that we don’t know about it, because it’s not meant for us any more. On that basis, maybe I’m wrong about the lack of pop tribes. It might just be my age, but young people look alike to me: all skinny jeans, self-conscious hair, and uniformity.

So I’m halfway through the regular punk-versus-hippie conversation that I have with my sister and I stop and ask my niece what there is now. And she says ‘in terms of style you mean?’ And that is exactly the point. It is only about style now. Once, it meant something.

Yes I am a feminist II

I’ve been watching the BBC series Women with mixed feelings. Partly frustration because I want viewers who don’t know about feminism to understand and there isn’t enough context to do that. And partly anger at how little has changed.

Venus in blue jeans

After years of me trying to get him to stop looking like Clarkson, Husband has suddenly become fashionable. According to those who know, ‘double denim’ is now the in thing.

Husband was bemused when I told him he was on trend. I don’t think he actually knows what ‘on trend’ means.

Yes, I am a feminist

I like a good gossip about Mad Men. (Is Roger still in love with Joan? Is Don losing his grip on cool?) But it’s interesting to discover how different people have different perspectives on the same thing. One of my colleagues (age: under 30) confessed she was surprised to see the extent to which a woman’s status, in that particular time and place, was tied to her husband’s job.

Young British women, it seems, have no concept of how different, how recently, women’s lives were from their own. They take for granted the fact that their independence and autonomy are now considered the norm. It’s not their fault: apparently, no-one told them.

Today is International Women’s Day. I’ll be putting the Guardian poster up at work.

A new series about feminism, Women, starts tonight on BBC4. I intend to make all my nieces - and nephews - watch it.

Me and Mrs Jones

Today, I am a happy person. I am officially NOT a baby boomer.

Apparently, the Americans have invented something called Generation Jones that sits between the boomers and Generation X: exactly where I am.

Don’t call me a baby boomer

Newsnight ran a slightly pointless ‘generation gap’ feature this week blaming baby boomers for the current woes of young people.

Don’t blame me. I voted for Michael Foot. I believed there was such a thing as society. I worried about my carbon footprint before it got fashionable.

But what I find really offensive is the suggestion that because of when I was born I had a charmed ‘never had it so good’ life. No: it's because of when I was born that I missed out on all that.