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By Eline Kullock
I just read an article on Folha On Line in which an actress, wearing a short dress (not even that short in the eyes of a baby boomer,) went to various prestigious Brazilian Universities (including the Law School at USP, FMU at University Ibriapuera, and PUC). The actress, pretending to be a student, asked random questions like, “Where’s the bathroom?” just to test the reaction of students to her outfit.
Ironically, this actress suffered the same crazy reactions as the Uniban student Geisy Arruda, who was violently bullied, insulted, and ostracized by her classmates for wearing a short mini skirt. The actress did undergo less violent reactions than Geisy. In Geisy’s case, the police even had to get involved.
As I watch and reflect on this, I think about the pendulum theory. Hippies created a counter culture, starting a revolution. Non-conformist went it came to war, they rebelled against the values of their time.
As society obtains certain liberal values, the pendulum seems to swing back to the other side. There’s a rebellion against these liberal values, and a quest for a “middle ground” of the pendulum.
Are young people who rejected the micro-skirt attempting to express what can and can’t be done? But this is the generation that CAN DO ANYTHING. ANYTHING. TOTAL FREEDOM FOR ALL.
Of course this “can do anything” mindset doesn’t encompass harmful actions, such as stealing, and killing. However, it does include posing naked on the Internet. It seems that young people don’t care about this. “The body is mine, and I can do what I want with it.” This has always been the message Gen Y has expressed. A level of zero prejudice.
Even in my lectures young people are less prejudice than baby boomers. There’s usually the sense that they accept people more as they are. The accept diversity.
However, I’m really surprised at the number of weddings I see among very young people. Up until very recently, wedding rates were low. Our generation, the baby boomers, were revolutionaries. We opened up doors for people to simply live together, without the need for a signed piece of paper, a priest, or a rabbi.
Generation X lived together and usually didn’t care so much about the tradition of marriage and religious ceremonies. Especially because the fairytale of a virgin bride isn’t even close to reality anymore, it’s become totally irrelevant. And yet, why is that in big Brazilian cities like Sao Paulo and Rio, I see more and more young people really wanting to get married? What’s more, they want the classic wedding that we considered really old-fashioned in our day!
Does all this have to do with the shift and movement of counterculture? Is this a movement of a current generation saying “enough!” to certain things? Enough to “you can do anything?” I can only understand the ban on the miniskirt (not only in the case of Geisy but also in all the Universities the actress went to), through the pendulum theory. But if this isn’t the explanation, then I’m completely confused by the signals this generation is sending. Perhaps some college students can explain what’s going on to me…
