20 April 2006

The Most Annoying Generation™ Does It Better Than You

Well, so they'll tell you, anyway, but by now you should be used to them telling you just about anything, provided that it's pompous, smug, self-absorbed and self-satisfied. And, of course, they'll assume you're absolutely fascinated to hear it.

I refer to them as "they" advisedly, since, whether I like it or not (and I'm not sure I do), I'm practically a charter member of TMAG (astute readers will recognise the coinage from "Dr" Frank Portman's brilliant novel, King Dork, and if you haven't read it yet, quit wasting your time on this silly blog and go get it). But I'm continually embarrassed by my baby boomer compatriots, not so much because they're at an awkward age (hey, I am too), but because they seem determined to go through their entire lives demanding to be the centre of everyone's attention while simultaneously refusing to believe that anything of cultural, political or social importance has happened since the 1960s (okay, early to mid-70s, tops).

Anyway, what's got my ire up this week is this from (of course) the Guardian, in which one certified (possibly certifiable) BBer explains why her generation (hey, don't look at me, I just resigned), in addition to having stopped the war, ended poverty, invented civil rights and made the whole world infinitely more groovy, is now having more or at least better sex than those pathetic, stressed-out teens and 20-somethings. Yes, and this would probably explain why everyone is rushing to the cinema to see romantic films about late middle-aged people, and why porn stars under the age of 45 have pretty much been put out of business by the overwhelming demand for baby boomer studs and studettes.

Some of the comments posted on the Guardian website echo my own sentiments, including:
Jesus, will those baby-boomers never shut up? Not content with polluting the world, invading Iraq and stealing the pensions of their children, now we learn they have better sex. They will be claiming they invented growing old, next.
and
Is it anything to do with the fact that babyboomers are the most self-obssessed generation in the history of the human race and won't stop talking about how great they are?
Perhaps the harshest, but still well-deserved, is this one:
Well, given the choice between bad sex with a 20-year-old and 'good' sex with a 50-year-old, I'll take the former every time ;-). Yvonne Roberts and boomers like her should take a look in the mirror - you're old, and you're getting older. The reason you feel "comfortable in your own skin" is because it's so much baggier - less Miss Selfridge and more Miss Marple.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating that people of a certain age should stop having or enjoying sex. Just that there's a certain point at which you have to accept that most other people would really prefer not to have to hear about it.

No comments: