‘Gen Z is aging badly’. ‘Millennials are lame for using wallets.’ ‘The Boomer lead-paint stare.’ ‘Gen X is the forgotten generation’. This might be a controversial stance for the founder of a self-described youth publication to take, but I am exhausted by the meaningless generational beef we’re being force-fed by clickbait digital media and online commentators. Most of it is made up, and even on topics where there is a material difference in the way each cohort experiences the world (for example, the housing crisis) focusing only on generation gaps prevents us from moving towards real solutions.
So I’m drawing a line in the sand: Zee Feed is opting out of the generation wars. Here’s why I think you should consider joining us.
In 2024 and beyond, the challenges facing us do not cleave so neatly along generational lines. Yes, the economic circumstance is much worse for the ‘average’ Millennial or Gen Z in their 20s and 30s than it was for the ‘average’ Gen X or Baby Boomer at the same age. Resolving this should be the highest priority for a wealthy democratic country like Australia, and it makes no sense to deny that it is measurably worse to be young now.
But the driving force that created this shitshow was not the mere passing of time. It was, at first, the emergence and dominance of neoliberalism, now followed by the emergence and growing dominance of technofuedalism. These ideologies and the way they have been enshrined in policy created just as devastating outcomes for older folks on low and middle incomes as they have for young people. Women over 65 are the fastest growing group experiencing homelessness; only 11% of potential first home buyers in the country can afford to buy a home. These groups should be allies, combining their voices in the fight for change. Hyperfocusing on the generational divide only isolates us from each other – an isolation that benefits those who maintain the status quo.
The frivolousness of the generation wars papers over the ideological divides that still exist within generations. It’s exemplified by the likes of conservative columnist and News Corp’s favourite Gen Z, Caleb Bond (loves Trump, hates tattoos); Millennial Liberal Senator James Paterson, who would like to withdraw humanitarian aid funding from starving Palestinians; and disgruntled Sydney University student Freya Leach, who wrongly believes immigrants are creating the housing crisis.
In the U.S., there is a lot of discussion about the potential ideological divide between young men and women (whether or not it’s ‘real’ in terms of data is up for debate). In Australia, the data does show that Millennial voters are not necessarily becoming more conservative as they get older – disrupting the trend followed by previous generations. But it also goes much further. The Australian Election Study finds factors like class, education and asset ownership are more closely linked to voting choice than age.
Of course it does, this is intersectionality! And if you believe that bringing an intersectional approach to social issues (as I do) delivers the best solutions, then it makes no sense to remain fixated on generational divides.
The major events that are said to define each generation’s behaviour haven’t impacted everyone within those cohorts the same way. For Millennials, the Global Financial Crisis and 9/11 are often cited as the most influential of our world-view and current circumstance. To say the GCF and early digital revolution negatively affected Millennials trying to get their first media and journalism jobs is broadly true. But it was much more difficult for me to get a ‘foot in the door’ as the daughter of working-class immigrants living in Perth, than it was for Millennials educated at elite Sydney and Melbourne private schools. By the same token, the rampant Islamophobia that followed 9/11 was much less affecting to me as an 11-year-old Asian girl than it was for an 11-year-old Arab girl.
These experiences are not the same, and it’s silly to pretend that they are.
Keeping us divided and preoccupied with a meaningless, age-based culture war makes us less able to coordinate on fighting for the things that do impact us. This is particularly important for women and gender non-conforming folks – we can’t be quibbling about who is ageing worse than whom, while those in power are legislating away reproductive rights; eroding our right to protest; refusing to pay us our worth; and failing to protect us from gender-based violence.
Even within the bounds of gender, am I to believe that a 29-year-old tradwife stands in solidarity with me more than someone like union figure Wil Stracke, just by virtue of age? It makes no sense. Who is really the ‘girls girl’?
The generation wars are deliberately manufactured, by the way. Which is why we mostly conservative-run media outlets ripping nothing-burger content from social media and running it under headlines that overemphasise the age of the subject. By keeping us mad at the wrong thing, an unchangeable thing, they hope to drain us of any energy that can be channelled towards actual progress.
Solidarity – especially intergenerational solidarity – has and will continue to be at the core of any meaningful change
Zee Feed was initially marketed on doing news for Gen Z and Millennial women, so it does feel ironic to be taking this stance. But as we’ve grown into our true editorial stance – progressive politics and true feminist commentary – we have found supporters and fans of all ages. There are also many young Australians who absolutely fucking hate what we do. And that’s ok!
But for those of us who do care about correcting the imbalances and injustices that decades of self-serving politics has creating, we must refuse engaging in the generation wars. Who gives a shit about wallets or email sign-off preferences when all this is at stake?
Smart people read more:
Solidarity and strategy: the forgotten lessons of truly effective protest– The Guardian
Begging you to listen to this man – Zee Feed newsletter
How the French youth is redefining their relationship to work – Young Fabians
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