So I live in Chicago and here, it’s been one of the worst winters I’ve experienced in my lifetime. We’ve had more snow and it’s been colder than I can remember. And that’s including the year we had “Snowmageden”. It hasn’t been all bad though. We are in the middle of a pandemic and it’s forced us all to stay inside and probably slow this thing down pretty substantially here so for that I guess I’m thankful. But I’ve definitely been spending more time inside. To give you a good example if you don’t live here. If I walk outside, it’s 40 degrees out, it’s sunny which is nice to see. But if I walk outside right now, I guarantee you I will run into at least 2 people wearing shorts if not more and absolutely at least one dude going for a run shirtless. So that gives you an example of, that’s at 40 degrees, so just imagine how much warmer it must feel for that to happen. That gives you a good feeling of where we’ve been at.
So we’ve been inside and I’ve been on social media. Mostly on TikTok because really the other social networks drive me crazy. First you have Twitter which is really just a bunch of people bashing other people, smart comments, negativity. I’m having a really hard time with that channel because it feels very negative and that’s coming from someone that’s also on Facebook which is…I don’t know how I even still have a Facebook account? I feel like the only time I go on there is when I get into arguments with other people. Like I’ve gotten in more trouble from what I’ve posted on Facebook from family that’s upset because they don’t agree with what I’m posting, than any other network for sure. And then there’s Instagram which feels fake. I love Instagram because I’m a very visual person, but ‘it’s really like the edited magazine-version of life. People only post the best aspects of their life, and that’s including me because that’s what belongs on that channel. But that’s reality. So TikTok is, for me, a refuge.
There’s cool stuff, like I love seeing – people are really talented. Seeing the videos of pure, raw talent, I’m amazed and impressed. There’s also just laughing because they say something that hits very close to home. TikTok is pretty much where I’ve experienced most of what I’ll be talking about today.
So Gen Z vs. Millennial. This has been something that’s been bubbling, while it’s kind of always existed. But it’s definitely something that’s been bubbling up the last couple of months. There’s been three things in particular that I’d like to talk about today. The first one being skinny jeans.
According to Gen Z, it’s no longer cool to be wearing skinny jeans. Cool, well thanks. I don’t really give a shit what jeans I should be wearing. Let’s be clear, the jeans they want us to be wearing are like circa 1990 Avril Lavine-ish. I may have the year wrong but you know the ones I’m talking about. It’s Avril Lavine, Skaterboy, don’t look good on anyone – even the skinniest girl ever, like model walking down the runway could be wearing these baggy jeans and look like she’s my actual size, like a size 10-12. These don’t look good on anybody but apparently that’s what they’d like us to wear.
I’m like, you go through that. We already went through that phase. I don’t need to be going backwards in my style, I tried that! I tested it out, it failed and I moved forward. That’s the benefit of where I am in life, but if you need to experience it to realize it’s true for yourself then by all means, please do so.
The other jeans they’d like us to reconsider are low-rise jeans. Like, “Fuck No”. Absolutely not. We all wore the low-rise jeans. We did it. I even knew a girl I used to hang out with that would go commando in her low-rise jeans because they released the low-rise jeans first and then it took them a while to realize, oh, women don’t want their thongs to be hanging out when they sit or move. So we should also make the underwear low-rise. No duh. So it took them a while, there was a gap. So you either you had to go commando which, maybe some of you do and good for you but that’s not my thing, or you had to have your underwear showing. And that put a lot of pressure on your underwear. What am I wearing today? Does it match with what I’m wearing? Before no one would notice and now everyone is going to know what I’m wearing the second I walk or do anything.
Also, low-rise jeans are pretty much one of the causes that Millennial women have a complex about their midsection. I challenge you to start noticing if you cover your stomach in different situations. For example, when you’re sitting down, where do you cross your hands? Do you put them in front of your midsection? Or maybe, do you always adjust the fabric that’s around your midsection so it sits differently? Or when you stand and take pictures, od you put the one arm like a tea pot to make sure your midsection looks thin? Yeah thank you low-rise jeans. We can contribute the insane, top of mind awareness of what our midsection looks like at all times to low-rise jeans. In fact, I didn’t actually notice that I was doing this. You may be sitting there thinking you don’t do that. I didn’t notice until Christian called me out on it. Thank God, now I can be more aware. He wasn’t rude about it but he was like – why do you always cover your stomach and adjust your shirt? I didn’t think I did that and then I started noticing I do it all the time! And that is because of low-rise jeans!
So Gen Z, I kind of beg you to not do that because trust me, it’s not worth the rest of your life having to think about what your midsection looks like and to have a complex, but if you don’t want to believe us because I get how you don’t want to believe older people know what they’re talking about, then go for it. But honey you’re going to be worrying about your lower abdomen and what it looks like pretty much for the rest of your life after that. So you can go do that, but there’s no way in hell you’re getting me to put on low-rise jeans at any point in my life. Nor should older Millennials. I haven’t have kids yet and the pressure of wearing low-rise jeans right now? And I actually feel like I’m in some of the best shape of my life right now, I still feel like there’s too much pressure. Because there’s just going to be angles that aren’t going to look good. There’s no way, unless you are a Victoria’s Secret model, but even them, at some point it’s just not going to look good. Just to much pressure. I don’t want to have to worry about it. Life’s too short. No thank you!
I’m sticking to my skinny jeans. When those first came out, I remember thinking they wouldn’t look good on me. I was probably wearing my low-rise jeans, and these skinny jeans, that’s crazy. I actually have hips and ass and I’m going to look huge in those. And I will admit, I was wrong. I love my skinny jeans now. Also, it’s so much easier when you have to wear boots. They don’t get wet when you’re walking on the street. You don’t walk in a puddle and now you have that wet bottom of your jean that continues to travel up your legs. Why does water travel upwards? There’s so many things we’ve tested out and we’ve learned the hard way. And now we’ve landed on skinny jeans, maybe a boot cut here or there, but skinny jeans are really the most practical. Especially a high-rise skinny jean? Now you’re talking! High-rise skinny jeans look so flattering! I love a high-rise skinny.
So thanks for your suggestion, but no. I’m good. Also, I would just like to say, the reasoning for all of this is “it’s not cool anymore” and my question to that is Who the fuck am I trying to be cool for? I’m an almost 39-year-old woman. I was never cool, first of all. That’s never been an achievement of mine in life so I don’t know why I’m trying to be that now. And how do you measure that as an older Millennial or an adult that’s past school? We don’t have yearbooks where it’s most popular. We don’t have those measurement systems in place anymore. It’s not about I have this many Facebook friends because I try to decrease my Facebook friends on a regular basis based on what people are posting. So how would we even measure that? And why the hell should I care? I have like six friends that I truly care about and invest time in those relationships. I’m not trying to have 100 acquaintances that I have to keep up with. It makes me laugh that Gen Zers think we care if we’re considered cool. Yeah, that’s not a way to get us to do anything at this point.
The second is side part. Apparently the side part is also no longer cool. And now they want it to be a middle part. Why do you care? Why do you give a shit about wear I’m parting my hair? It’s my hair. Aren’t you the generation of “my body my choice”? you be you? Be proud of who you are? That’s what you got to grow up with. My generation grew up with “this is what you should look like and if you don’t fit this mold, you suck”. That’s what we got and I don’t even care how others part their hair. Your generation are supposed to be the most openminded generation and that loves you for who you are and I’m not going to judge you and I accept you. But you have this thing with side parts?
There’s not that many ways to part your hair. You have the side part on the left, the right and in the middle. Maybe a zigzag. But unless you’re trying to do a weird combover situation, there’s like three ways so we’re going to take two ways out and everyone will have a middle part? Do you know how weird that would be to be walking around the streets and only see side parts on every single person? How awkward would that be? I imagine that to be like a weird black mirror episode where you leave your house and everyone is wearing baggy jeans, middle parts and do you want to pick what colors we’re allowed to wear? And it’s just this creepy scene where you’re walking around and thinking something is not right. That’s what I imagine if we all just switched to middle parts.
My hair has a mind of her own sometimes, and sometimes a middle part isn’t working. But I can also pull of a middle part, don’t get me wrong. I can pull off a side part, I’m lucky like that. But not everyone can, and I respect that. Some people have colics, some have widow’s peaks, some people are just not into the middle part. And if you found a part that works for you and makes you feel good about yourself then go for it. Who am I to say? But I’m the older Millennial. Shouldn’t I be the one that’s more judgy? Isn’t that my role in society? I’m more judgy of others because I’m an older Millennial and that’s the way we were brought up? I can’t believe I’m saying this but Gen Z, back the fuck up and don’t judge me for, honestly, something that – who cares?
We are living in a middle of a global pandemic, people are dying, we got social justices being fought on a daily basis, our political system is completely out of whack, people are losing their jobs and on unemployment. People are struggling to get jobs out of college, which BTW shouldn’t you be worried about that but we’re over here picking on skinny jeans and side parts. Like get your priorities together because if this is what you care about, I feel like we have a lot more we don’t agree on than side parts and skinny jeans.
I never cared so much about wearing skinny jeans and side parts until I was told not to by a Gen Zer. And that is the most Millennial thing I just said on this podcast. Because God knows, don’t tell a Millennial we can’t do something because we will want ot do it more at that point. I mean you can ask my parents, they would agree with me. I wouldn’t even want to do something and they would tell me I wasn’t allowed to and it made me think it was the best idea I’ve ever heard. I’m not allowed to date that person? I 100% want to date that person. I didn’t even like them before but now? I for sure want to date them. That was pretty much how I made life choices as a teenager.
So the side part thing, the skinny jean thing – mind yo business. No one needs your opinion here. I’m not saying anything about what you’re wearing and trust me, there are plenty of opinions in my head but I’m not going to rip you down. I’m going to be the older, more mature one in this conversation and not tell you what you should wear. You need to experience life yourself. You need to figure out what works and doesn’t work. As a Millennial, what I have found is we realize it doesn’t matter what’s in trend. When you find something that works fo your body, go with it and it will come back in trend at some point. It doesn’t’ even matter because trends circulate.
When I look at Gen Zers on TikTok, I’m like why are you giving me 2000’s vibes? You’re giving me vibes of my college style. I don’t know if that’s the decade we want to go back to but if they do, they can try it out and live our youth for us again and we can just watch it from afar and judge. But that’s their choice.
The last one is opinions about how we should be drinking. I saw this TikTok in particular that was “stop drinking like you are in your 20’s”. So we’re going to dive into that one. First of all, what does that mean? When I hear don’t drink like you’re in your 20’s it means one of two things. One, you’re drinking too much in volume and calm down or it’s what you’re drinking.
From a volume drinking perspective, I still drink a lot, but I don’t drink every day. I remember when I went to college it was like Monday was here, Tuesday was this bar, Wednesday etc. That’s also because my parents wouldn’t let me go to parties growing up so when I went to college I went buck wild just because I could and they couldn’t tell me to come hone at a certain time. So that backfired on my parents. Did I drink a lot? Yes. Was it often? Yes.
As an adult, do I drink often? Yes. I have a job, a full-time career, so at the end of a long day or frustrating day in corporate America, you want to open a bottle of wine and have a glass to relax. But am I taking shots and having all you can drink specials on a Tuesday night? No. I’m having a glass of Pinot Noir while I’m watching some TV before I go to bed. Even a pregnant woman could do and not hurt the baby so I’m not going crazy every night.
Now on the weekends, yeah that might change. Especially in the summer, in Chicago the thing to do is street fests (when it’s not covid) and pretty much drink al day and night. But I wasn’t out drinking all day, I was at a street fest where I stood and drank all day. Volume-wise, maybe. But the difference is as a 38yo woman, I have perfected my ability to drink for long periods of time and a lot of alcohol where I don’t get sick anymore. I know how to pace myself. I know it’s a marathon and not a sprint in some situations. I know how to mix in some water along with the drinking to make sure I can last the whole day.
For example, we’re planning our wedding coming up and I’m having a conversation with my mom. She brings up how I want mimosas and bloodys while we’re getting ready, and then some bottles of rose in the bridal suite before the ceremony and then my “hers” cocktail of jalapeno margarita during the reception. She warned me that I needed to be careful as that is a lot of alcohol and I’m mixing alcohols throughout the day. And I was thinking, I’m going to be almost 39 at the time of this wedding. I know how to drink and how to take care of myself. I know how ot make sure I’m not drunk for my ceremony. It’s the one drink, two glasses of water throughout the day until you switch it up and it’s one glass of water per two drinks later on in the night.
Don’t worry about it. I’ve spent like 20 years perfecting this and building my tolerance to this point where I want to go to dinner and it’s a small fortune where 60% of the bill is alcohol. Not only can I drink quite a bit, but of course I only like the expensive stuff. I know how to drink now, so I’m not worried about it.
That’s not a 20-something year old. I’m not the one leaving Timothy O’ Tooles puking on the sidewalk. That’s not me. You’re not going to catch me puking on the side of Timothy O’ Tooles. Actually you probably aren’t going to catch me at all in Timothy O’ Tooles at all because I don’t want to drink around a bunch of Gen Zers that can’t handle their alcohol. So we may drink the same amount, but I can handle my alcohol and my friends and I can handle ourselves. We aren’t those messes when we leave a bar. So let’s just chill out on that because while you can physically drink a lot, you also puke half of it out.
On the flip side, what we’re drinking? Definitely different! In my 20’s it was like Captain and Diet, mudslides, vodka cranberries. Just thinking about all the sugar and crap – gross. Its like when I started drinking coffee I would get the mocha at Starbucks. You aren’t even drinking coffee at that point. Your drinking chocolate sauce with some coffee beans. It’s not even coffee.
Same thing with these, a mudslide? I don’t know if you can even consider that alcohol. You’re just ingesting a ton of sugar that will eventually get you drunk. No, we don’t drink the same. I don’t drink like I’m in my 20s. Drinking in your 20s means drinking what you can afford or what people will buy for you. Because you’re broke. I’m not drinking a Woodford Reserve on the rocks in my 20s. that’s not what was happening. You’re still new to alcohol, you’re still trying to figure out what you like. So you’re trying whatever. Jungle juice? You’re not going to catch me drinking Jungle Juice at this point in my life. Or doing beer bongs? These are not things us later 30’s do unless you’re a total loser at this point. If you’re doing beer bongs at almost 40, that is actually a problem and a different podcast.
Also, wine-wise, I used to drink Francia. Slap the bag, put the box in the fridge, doesn’t even matter what flavor because they all taste the same – Francia. Now, I am a grown as adult and I have a wine fridge. And you better believe there are not things like Yellowtail or Barefoot or Cupcake in my wine fridge. That’s what 20-year-olds drink, the 20 something year old version of wine. My version of wine is legit. I love a good Pinot Noir from Willamette. That’s my favorite. Or a good Rose from Provence. That’s where I’m at in life. You know why? Because wine, I’ve also tested out like jeans and know what I like and what I don’t like. But also I can afford to have what I like. And that’s the benefit of drinking while you are older.
I’ve built up a tolerance, well actually that’s a downside because I wish I was a cheaper date for myself and my fiancé. But the benefits is you get to drink good alcohol, you can afford to drink it and you can hold it. You might get more hungover as you get older but you also learn how to manage that.
Net net, one of the things I love about the Gen Z generation is their willingness to speak up and say what they believe. I love that. I don’t want to squash it, I want to encourage that. I want to encourage you to keep that throughout your life. But an important life lesson that you need to learn is just because you speak up, doesn’t mean anyone gives a shit. This is a good example of that. You can tell me not to wear skinny jeans, or stop wearing side parts, or that I need to stop drinking like a 20-year-old. Whatever that means. But I don’t care. I’m a grown as woman and if I want to go into my wine fridge, pick out a beautiful bottle of Pinot Noir and drink that, maybe a lot of it. That’s my choice. I’m going to in my skinny jeans, with my side part and cheers my other Millennials that are going to go live their life and not worry about what some 20-something year old thinks about your outfit. None of us are trying to be cool, we’re just trying to get by and feel as fabulous as we can every single