generational differences in feminism?

[Gayle]

Do you think young people have a different contribution to make to feminist theory and practice? What are people called born after 1980 in your country?
The Guardian reported on what different countries call people born after 1980. European countries have different descriptors for what the US calls Millennials and the UK and Australia calls Gen Y: Sweden’s Generation Curling (for parents clearing all obstacles from their path like clearing an ice field), Norway’s Generation Serious, Poland’s Generation John Paul II (upset by the Polish pope’s death in 2005), Germany’s Generation Maybe (unable to commit faced by many options), Greece’s Generation of 500 euros (the government salary paid to young workers) and Spain’s Generation Ni-NI or Mileuristas (neither work or study or low salary). Chinese call them ken lao zu, “the generation that eats the old” for living off their parents, and Japanese call them nagara-zoku, “the people who are always doing two things at once” or the Relaxed Generation who live with their parents. Others call them Generation Terror because they grew up after 9// and the war of terror, Echo Boomers because they have some of the same values and large size of the Baby Boomers, or Generation Debt in the US and Generation [high] Rent in the UK and Australia where young adults fear they won’t be able to buy a house and have to pay high rents.

[Jodi]

I'm in the US and I was born in 79 so I'm at a strange age to discuss millennials. I'm a little old to be in that group but I'm too young to have a lot of distance from it.

Having said that, I follow many blogs on social media about current topics, mostly human rights. Most of the bloggers are millennials.

I think the younger generation is much more aware and inclusionary. I see many posts calling for feminism to include women with disabilities, and women of color. I've read posts from young women expressing what the hijab means to them and how it affects their interaction with men. I've read posts calling for feminism to include sex workers, stating that if feminism is about supporting women and their choices, then voluntary sex workers must be supported too.

One recent post I read implored everyone to "pay for their porn." That sex workers need their industry supported and watching free movies on porn hub was anti-feminist.

Obviously there will be a lot of dissension in how people feel about that statement but it certainly speaks to the level of inclusiveness there is among this generation as a whole.

I mean I'm pretty sure my mothers ideals of feminism didn't include paying for porn ;)

[Meaghan]

I'm in Canada and I'm a Millennial. I rarely heard people refer to us as Gen Y but sometimes it happens.

I actually had a conversation with a Boomer over the weekend and she was lamenting the younger generation getting complacent and wearing heels and things that "the patriarchy forced on us". And I had to tell her that many women in my generation were embracing makeup and style as a way to express ourselves and take back control of our bodies. A lot of my friends wear heels because it makes them feel good, it makes them feel tall and powerful and she just wasn't getting it.

And it's fine that she has other concerns and they're valid, but she just assumes that the younger generations have given up on feminism just because we have different ideas about what that means. I'm sure this doesn't apply to all older feminists but I imagine there is a group that thinks like her.