There are certain ways of thinking and speaking that are very Gen Z. I donโt know the appropriate context in which to use the word โslayโ but I try, for my nieces and for the cooler, younger women in my cohort. I tend not to engage in hyperbole, but I know it is a very Gen Z thing to do. Sure, I say โI hate thisโ and โI love thatโ or I say something is โthe bestโ or โthe worstโ, but only in the specific
context of American politics and the situation we find ourselves in now.
We canโt just share things on social media and think our job is done. Credit: ISTOCK
Iโve lost count of the number of times in the past five years someone has used the word โunprecedentedโ, or something similar, only for it to be soon usurped by the Next Unprecedented Thing. Like many of us, I still find it hard to decipher what is actually terrible, and what is merely uncomfortable.
Curious to check what the political discourse was like around the time of my birth, in Reagan-era 1987, I looked through old copies of Esquire magazine. To my surprise, and maybe relief, I saw
that people then were worried about many of the same things we are now โ abortion, employment quotas, the death penalty and the presidentโs influence over the judicial system.
And what about the position of women โ how has that changed?
I know that by the time I was born, it was no longer legal in Australia to beat your wife. And because of further progress in gender equality, I know that itโs easier for me now than at any other time in history to, for instance, move to the other side of the world to study, or buy a house, or do nearly anything I feel like doing.
I know for certain these are things my mother or grandmother wouldnโt have been able to do. Or, at
least, they would have faced far greater resistance and more hurdles than I have. So, in that sense at least, things are better, and they have been getting better for women for a long time. What I fear now, though โ among many other things โ is that all that work was for nought.
Itโs like using all of your breath to fill a balloon only for it to slip from your grasp, the air escaping with a comical sound.
BROOKE BONEY
How is that possible after all of those uncomfortable conversations? After all those meetings? After all those shared experiences? How have we ended up here? Was it all for nothing?
I feel the same about the way things have moved backwards on black issues, too. Under US President Donald Trump, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the US have been scrapped. Itโs like using all of your breath to fill a balloon only for it to slip from your grasp, the air escaping with a comical sound, and the rubbery blob laying flaccid on the ground. Only this time youโre too out-of-breath to fill it up again.
