Generation Buffy

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goldenboy

Scooby
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Feb 17, 2005
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I'm wondering how different generations react to Buffy. I would catagorize Joss as being towards the oldest edge of the so-called Generation X. I'm a little younger than him, still a member of "X". I'd say Xers are now between the ages of maybe 43 and about 21, 22 or so.

The Scoobies were about half a generation younger than me, 10, 12 years or so. They were the youngest, tail end members of GenX. I can still relate to them in that regard. Similar experiences living in America, similar cultural references. I think there's something unique to this generation that Joss is a part of"”reflected in the cynicism, sarcasm, fragmentation of people's lives. The Scoobies' parents are mainly out of the picture for instance, a common theme for X'ers

I just wonder if non-GenXers relate to it in the same way. I tend to think not. I know Joss was trying to make Buffy an enduring mythic character. Trying to reflect universal angst and themes of growing up. And it's working to a great degree.

I have no information on how Boomers, folks in their roughly mid 40's to mid 60's perceive it. Just don't really know.

And as far as the young'uns, Gen Y or Millenials or whatever you want to call them, hmm... I think they relate to the universalist, adolescent themes easily. And I think their older siblings' sarcasm and cynicism and post-modern take on things rubs off on them. So they "get it" just fine. Who knows how it will be perceived in another 20 years?
 
Where is the line between X and Y anyway? What differs the one from the other.

When I think of gen y, I think of Jaye Tyler on Wonderfalls. Wouldn't she be about the same age as Buffy and the Scoobs?
 
In 20 years it will be percieved differently because people won't get all the pop culture references. But I am 18 so does that make me a Y generation? And also I don't have older siblings but I'm quite cynical and sarcastic so I don't think you can group personality traits into generations people were born in...

My mom is a boomer and she really likes the show.
 
Well, it's interesting. I agree, I'm broadly generalizing and I don't mean to offend. This may be nonsense but...Some people tend to have personality traits of a generation that's not theirs. It's not a science of course. The prevailing cultural perception of GenX tends to be slacker, lazy, cynical, detached, post mod, flexible, adaptable. Many match all those traits. Others just some. Some young kids seem like that, Some very old folks. Yet they're not of that generation.

One theory holds that generations in America last about 20 years, give or take. Never much more than that. Sometimes a little less. Sometimes a dramatic event in history alters the mood, culture of a nation and kick-starts the shift to a new generation of people. The end of WW2 began the Baby Boom. We'd just won a war. We were on top of the world. Those Boomers were very different in temperment and expectations from the previous generation. Pampered and demanding compared to previous generations that were in the middle of a crisis. Some people think the end of the Boom and birth of Generation X began with the Kennedy assassination in 1961. The innocent, bright mood of the country was forever changed. These Xer's kept being born for 20 years during the druggy, hazy 60's and 70's.

But then a funny thing happened. About 20 years had passed since Kennedy. Reagan was elected. A conservative backlash against the malaise of the late 70's. The mood had shifted yet again. End of the Xer births and beginning of the new generation. Don't know if the milestone events match the shifts precisely, but that's the theory.

That's why I say there is such a thing as Gen Y and they're not Gen X. The shift was in the early 80's. I don't know how they will eventually be described, but I bet it will be different than slacker, cynic, detached. Most Boomers were not perceived as cynics for instance, but rather extreme idealists. I'm just thinking in terms of cultural perceptions as much as anything. People are individuals first and foremost.
 
You've also got to take into account the differences in pop culture around the globe. I guess i'm Generation X but one thing I always liked about Buffy was because of the timing I was leaving High School as she was, and when she first started College I was having some of the same issues.
 
Faith
That's a good point. I always wondered how the finer points of Buffy could possibly translate to say, France for instance. Not only different cultural references, but a unique, semi-fictitious American teen-speak. Based on the popularity, they got the gist I guess.
 
For me it wasn't a problem because I follow American culture and have friends from there so I get things. And if I was ever unsure I had them to ask 😉

Its like the Chandler thing now, how many people do you know that have his speech patterns? And I can't even say 'I Know' without going all Monica.
 
C
Cordelia
I Know!!!
I don't think it will be a problem... It will be one of those things, where the people who love it the most, will hold onto it... And who knows, I mean, people my age still like the original Degrassi High, whos to say that Buffy wont do something like that... People seem to be entrigued by things that are different, and if the mannerisms and culture of the "Y" generation changes that much by the time they reach our ages, they whos to say they wont follow the same pattern.... My little sister is 12, "Y" generation, and she loves Buffy... She doesnt care which episode I'm watching when she gets home, she wants to watch it... It just takes a few people to spread things like TV shows around like a disease...
 
Faith
Faith
I still remember the original degrassi!
Speaking as one of the few Boomers to frequent these here parts...I latched onto Buffy and Angel because they're bloody good examples of genre TV, something for which I'm always on the lookout. I've been a fan of the ol' sci-fi and fantasy since Gerry Anderson's classic puppet shows (the first time round btw). I guess I'm still a kid at heart as well, so I guess that helps...
 
First time I became conscious of being identified as a member of a "generation" was probably the early 90's in college. And they called us slackers! Lazy, directionless, etc. Pissed me off. I was working my ass off, painting houses with my dad since I was 14! Now scraping my way through college and they call me a "slacker"?! Sheesh. They were describing trends in society, not "me". And were correct to a degree

But I do think these broad trends exist in the culture and you can kind of break them apart by increments of roughly 20 years.

Anyways, I'm alway searching for good genre TV too. I think Buffy will hold up well for the long haul in many respects.
 
I looked it up and there are no exact dates for it but I read that most people regard Generation Y as being those born from 1980-82 to 2004. It says Generation Y tends to be highly pressured to succeed and have much of their lives scheduled by schools and parents. First generation raised with home computers, cell phones, & IMs. They're the most tolerant generation. I got that from Wikipedia. I like how it characterizes Generation X -flannel wearing, alienated, overeducated, underachieving slackers with body piercings, who drank franchise store coffee and worked at McJobs. They list Generation X as reaching from birth in the late 60's to about 82' so I'm kind of on the edge of X and Y. I'm probably a bit more X because I wasn't really raised with all that technology, I didn't get any of that stuff until I was almost out of high school. I can relate to the Buffy gang alot. When I started high school the Buffy gang was in 11th grade. I've found people of so many ages that watch this show though that I don't think age has much to do with it. I mean it might make how you feel about an episode different but I think all ages enjoy it the same.
 
goldenboy said:
First time I became conscious of being identified as a member of a "generation" was probably the early 90's in college. And they called us slackers! Lazy, directionless, etc. Pissed me off. I was working my ass off, painting houses with my dad since I was 14! Now scraping my way through college and they call me a "slacker"?! Sheesh. They were describing trends in society, not "me". And were correct to a degree
Click to expand...

Don't even get me started on the 'students are slackers' thing. I get those comments all too often and for a minority yeah its true but for the most of us (over here anyway) we work hard and we have at least one or two jobs going at the same time.

Anyways back to Buffy...The good thing about the show is that no matter your age there is always something that you can identify with because its timeless and you've been through it in some form of another. Thats why to me it attracts such a wide audience.
 
Hm, I don't have much to say about this but I agree with ~Dawn~. Well, I tend to get very annoyed when people judge people because of what age they are. I know it can definitely be fair to do, of course we're different because of when we grew up, that's pretty obvious but there are still so many other things to consider.. Otherwise I'd probably find at least one person among my friends (who are all around my age) who feel like I do about BtVS, and who "understand" it the way I do.. But yeah, I guess you watch the show in a different way, everyone do, and it has got something to do with age/generation but I don't think it's got a lot to do with that.. or, I hope it doesn't..
 
Just a self-correction. Last night I was watching the Angel episode where Jasmine grants this conspiracy theorist guy working at a bookstore a wish. She lets him know that Oswald did in fact act alone when he shot Kennedy in 1963. Not 1961. That is all.
 
Mr. Pointy
Mr. Pointy
Synchronicity strikes again - we watched that ep (The Magic Bullet) yesterday as well
Gotta say, I don't have any idea how different generations would react to Buffy. My brother is a Gen X'er (he's 15 years older than me, and has only seen through season 5) and he identifies heavily with Season 4 Xander (not because our parents are abusive, cause they're not 😉) but because of his aimlessness and inability to "settle down". My brother's a self-described "dead-beat chef", and he reacts to the isolation of the Slayer and the character's constant search for happiness. Eric is always looking ot be happy, but he never is (and leaving your wife and three kids under the age of six doesn't seem like the best way to happiness to me...sorry, "little Sister" rant moment).

Me, on the other hand, I respond to the strength and hope of the characters..even when things are darkest, someone (often dear Xander) pulls his or her friends back into the light. And that's what I respond to about Buffy. It seems to me the biggest difference between my brother's (a gen x'er) and my (a Millenial or whatever) responses to Buffy is that he responds to the despair, and I respond to the hope. Which is one of the things about buffy that I love, that it has both.
 
I think I related most to Xander too. Just a sense of muddling through, trying to figure out the rules. Life is wide open in this day and age, anyone can do and become anything, so what do I do? And at the same time, how should I behave? There are so many PC rules society tells you to obey. Mustn't offend. Also the construction work he fell into. The least stressful time of my life was painting houses, working with my hands. Relaxing.
 
I used to watch the original Degrassi High... here it came on Saturday nights on PBS or something, I thought it was a great show.
 
I bring this generation stuff up because I was recently reading "The Fourth Turning" by these sociologists, William Strauss and Neil Howe. They try to analyze American history and just about all aspects of American life"”social attitudes, religion, politics, pop culture"”through the prism of generations. Their basic conclusion is that history is cyclical in some ways. Moods and attitudes come, go away and come back again. For instance, they claim there was another generation in the 20th century, very similar to the so-called GenX. The Lost Generation of Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein. Began putting there stamp on the culture in the 20's They say it's all related to how generations of people interact with eachother.

It may be complete bunk, a lot of people think it is. I found it interesting bunk nonetheless.
 
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