It’s interest mapping onto this generational slide away from family and having children not only the economic outcomes over this same period of time but also the slowly unfolding endocrine disaster quietly taking shape in our societies. It’s a tough bit of science to process, not so much its causes and the alarming data associated with it, but the results that will reveal itself in about twenty years. Yikes! A fantastic podcast that deals with issues like these and many others is called the Great Simplification by Nate Hagens a biological economist of all things. Anyway the podcast from Nov. 29 with Jeremy Grantham, an American billionaire turned activist is particularly interesting as well as episode 100 which gives a general overview of a list of probable future outcomes on many topics. Hope more people take the time to listen to the science we often ignore.
I agree with the lack of initiation into adulthood, but it strikes me that many aspects of 90s/early 2000s pop culture presented a pretty gendered view of perpetual adolescence: girl and boy bands, the hypersexualisation of female pop stars such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, the manic pixie dream girl, Jackass, American Pie, American Beauty, American Psycho, Fight Club… Even today, where heterosexual romance plays much less of a role in popular culture, it seems odd to describe the prevailing ethos as ‘androgynous’ when young men and women seem to be inhabiting increasingly separate virtual worlds (men on YouTube, women on TikTok etc), which is reflected in their diverging political views, notwithstanding the proportion of Gen-Z who would like to opt out of gender altogether.
I think you're onto something specifically in regards to the Ellen Pages and Michael Ceras of that era, which did provide a welcome alternative to the "jocks" and "babes" which, even if they were made fun of, were still prevalent in films of the late 90s like American Pie & She's All That, etc.
While there was a recognition of the emergence of "being alternative is cool" (thanks, Freaks & Geeks, Garden State, Super Bad, etc.) it didn't necessarily overtake the typical roles associated with the "hot person" gender norms that Mary Jane Eyre's comment below succinctly describes. If there was liberation with a more androgynous type of personality, it was more in the opening of that category as a possibility than anything else, but still a category that carried with it assumptions and expectations that made it hard to be a plurality of things (to this day, I am thankful that my hippy dippy school made it possible to be in the school band, the varsity basketball team, and philosophy class)
It’s interest mapping onto this generational slide away from family and having children not only the economic outcomes over this same period of time but also the slowly unfolding endocrine disaster quietly taking shape in our societies. It’s a tough bit of science to process, not so much its causes and the alarming data associated with it, but the results that will reveal itself in about twenty years. Yikes! A fantastic podcast that deals with issues like these and many others is called the Great Simplification by Nate Hagens a biological economist of all things. Anyway the podcast from Nov. 29 with Jeremy Grantham, an American billionaire turned activist is particularly interesting as well as episode 100 which gives a general overview of a list of probable future outcomes on many topics. Hope more people take the time to listen to the science we often ignore.
I agree with the lack of initiation into adulthood, but it strikes me that many aspects of 90s/early 2000s pop culture presented a pretty gendered view of perpetual adolescence: girl and boy bands, the hypersexualisation of female pop stars such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, the manic pixie dream girl, Jackass, American Pie, American Beauty, American Psycho, Fight Club… Even today, where heterosexual romance plays much less of a role in popular culture, it seems odd to describe the prevailing ethos as ‘androgynous’ when young men and women seem to be inhabiting increasingly separate virtual worlds (men on YouTube, women on TikTok etc), which is reflected in their diverging political views, notwithstanding the proportion of Gen-Z who would like to opt out of gender altogether.
I think you're onto something specifically in regards to the Ellen Pages and Michael Ceras of that era, which did provide a welcome alternative to the "jocks" and "babes" which, even if they were made fun of, were still prevalent in films of the late 90s like American Pie & She's All That, etc.
While there was a recognition of the emergence of "being alternative is cool" (thanks, Freaks & Geeks, Garden State, Super Bad, etc.) it didn't necessarily overtake the typical roles associated with the "hot person" gender norms that Mary Jane Eyre's comment below succinctly describes. If there was liberation with a more androgynous type of personality, it was more in the opening of that category as a possibility than anything else, but still a category that carried with it assumptions and expectations that made it hard to be a plurality of things (to this day, I am thankful that my hippy dippy school made it possible to be in the school band, the varsity basketball team, and philosophy class)
Does Jason Segal fit in here? He's a 6-6 dude who was recuited to play college hoops. He's a giant-sized dude in Hollywood and a physical comedian.