Generation Q

Most of us will have heard of Generation X. It’s used to describe the generation of young adults in the 60’s and 70’s who were the pioneers of a new way of living.

The young people of Generation X opened their eyes and their minds, and began to see the world in a whole new light. They began to look at the world around them, to question it’s impact on them. They learned not to accept what they were told by those in power, an idea which fundamentally led to the destruction of the Berlin Wall.

This event was one of the most significant moments in history.

The fall of the Berlin wall represented more than just the unification of East and West Berlin. It signified the end of old ideas, the end of demographics being calculated using borders and boundaries, and the end of a struggle between the West and East sides of the world which at points threatened to overcome the world.

People no longer lived in fear of the end of everything they held dear.
We were freed from our fear, and the youth of the late 80’s stepped out into a Brave, New World.

I don’t remember the fall of the wall on November the 9th, 1989. I was 3 1/2 years old when the world as it was known, changed forever. I do remember those first years of my life, before it fell, as ones where nothing was taken for granted. Everyone tried their damndest to live for today, nothing else.
After the wall fell, the people of Europe considered themselves free.

“The matrix cannot tell you who you are”
Generation X was then applied to the youths of the early 90’s.
It’s a long debated topic, but Evolutionary psychologists theorise that in our minds, in order to get an idea of who we are, we must have an idea of who we are not.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the West had lost its significant other. There was no easy way to describe what we were, because that which we were not had been removed.
I remember the early 90’s. Rave culture hit the UK, hard. Young people, no longer bound by their fear, and with no real concept of who they were, set out to find out.

It appears that, in hindsight, they didn’t. Something else, more profound happened, in that the way that we saw the world began to change.

Lifestyle tribes and purchase desisions

Now, we take for granted that people of the same age range, doing the same job, will not automatically have the same interests.
This was an entirely new concept in the mid 90’s.
The emergence of ‘Lifestyle tribes’ had begun many years previously, in the USA, with Harley Davidson.
For certain people across the States, the name Harley Davidson embodied something more than just motorcycles. It embodied an idea of Freedom, of Comfort, of Luxury. Harley represented the American Dream.
People from all sections of society, right across the country, and to a lesser extent, the world, began buying Harleys because of what they meant to them. The brand has since become one of the most iconic in the world.
To most owners, owning a Harley is a lifestyle, not a purchase decision.
This spread across Europe in the 90’s, when people found themselves unwilling to stereotype themselves and their interests because of their age, their occupation, or their marital status.
So we have a group of people from all demographics, buying a product for what it means to them, as opposed to what marketing companies think they should buy.
While this may seem insignificant at first, this is possibly the biggest change in the way we, as an economy work. Lifestyle tribes are now the single most important consideration in how we spend, and how marketing companies target us.

Another example, lets look at the iPod generation. Without doubt, Apple has the most powerful brand in the world at the moment. People old and young, male and female, from bank managers to bank robbers own one. It transcends traditional marketing boundaries and reaches out to everyone

So where are we going with this? I write an article for a Queer Youth publication, and I’m talking about history and the modern economy!
What I’m trying to do is give you a picture of where we were, and where we are now.
The world has changed, and that change has been brought in, more or less, by the way that we spend our money.

I’d like to talk about today’s Generation.
I like to call it Generation ‘Q’

Q

‘Generation Q’ question the world around them, as did Generation X.
But while ‘X’ were forging a new path of enlightenment, ‘Q’ take this for granted. We take our freedom as an intrinsic right, and rebel in an unprecedented way when that freedom is taken away, or when there is a threat of it being taken.
Generation Q look at the world, and see it for what it is. We don’t need to question it, because it questions itself. Society and government has become ‘self-policing’.
The fundamental difference between ‘X’ and ‘Q’ is that ‘Q’ has learned not to look for something that defines what they are not, but to look to themselves to define who they are.

We look at ourselves and question our motives, our sexual feelings, our gender preference. We decide how we wish to be perceived, and who we want to perceive us. We choose our lifestyle tribes. We question the way we were made and look to change it. What started with body piercing and tattoos thousands of years ago, as a series of tribal markings, has been re-born. We mark our skin and flesh to show our allegiance to our lifestyle tribes. We integrate ourselves into our chosen culture, altering it and ourselves to suit our every whim. We are truly flexible.
To prove this, look no further than the attitudes towards LGB people (I’ll come on to the T later, it’s slightly different!) over the last 10-15 years.
When I came out, in 1998, being Gay was about drugs and illicit sex, about non-conformism and clubbing. It was considered shameful and disgusting. With the fall of Section 28 in our schools and colleges, the people of an older, less flexible generation lessened their grip on the thoughts of a younger, more supple mindset.
While there is still so much to do in schools, the fact that today (1st February) marks the start of LGBT history month, discussed in schools right across the country, shows that open minded debate is creeping into our culture. By questioning ourselves, we open our minds and allow us to understand others. It has given us empathy.

The T
It is regrettable that, still, all these years on, that Trans people do not get a slice of this empathy. The disgust and loathing of the older generation keeps the younger people of the UK in check. With failure to provide legislation to protect, failure to provide services to aid the transition process, and the medicalisation of ‘Gender Dysphoria’ and ‘Body Dysmorphia’, the youth of today are not encouraged to debate the questions raised by studies of Trans issues. Until the grip of the ‘fear driven generation’ is released, there can be no progress. As once they stifled the ‘gay’ debate, they now stop us from discussing what needs to be discussed. They will not release this grip willingly. We must fight for what we believe, we must fight for the equality of all people across the UK, and we must wrest control of the debate from them.

We, the Youth of today, will not be controlled and we will not bow to the closed-minded previous generations. We will not stand by and watch ourselves be misrepresented by organisations claiming to know what we want.

No longer are we Gay, Straight, Lesbian, Bi, Trans, Questioning, Curious, or Intersex

We are Queer. We have reclaimed our playground taunts and jibes.

We are here to stay.

There is no ‘Gay agenda’. There is only a longing to be treated the same as our peers.

Is that so much to ask for?