Andrés Vaccari

The World According to Y
by Rebecca Huntley (Allen & Unwin)

(Weekend Australian 18 march 2006)

While the notion of a ‘generation’ is largely a fabrication, it is useful to market researchers and sociologists as a way to study populations who lived through similar historical circumstances, and share certain attitudes and beliefs.

Just as I was beginning to figure out my own generation, it turns out we’re already obsolete. I was born in 1971, which makes me a member of much-maligned Generation X, characterised as pessimistic, cynical and apathetic. The next generation (variously dubbed Echo Boomers, the Millenials, or Generation Y) is made up of children and young adults born between the late 1970s and 2000. It is one of the largest generations in recent history, numbering around 70 million in the USA, just behind the Baby Boomers (72 million). In Australia the figures are not so spectacular: there are around 1.2 million young adults (18-25 year-olds), compared with 2 million Gen Xers (26-39 year-olds), and both are outnumbered by the legions of Boomer dinosaurs. But within twenty years Yers will constitute the bulk of the adult population.

Generation Y are notoriously difficult to pigeon-hole, one reason they have been also termed the Paradoxical Generation. The World According to Y attempts to find out what makes the Australian adults of tomorrow tick. It is an accessible pop- sociology group portrait with its share of merits and failings. As a GenXer, Rebecca Huntley does a great job of restraining her cynicism, but her approach cannot overcome a certain sociological distance, a sense of ‘us and them’.

Huntley sees Yers as generally resourceful and optimistic in the face of an uncertain future and sweeping social changes. She surveys their attitudes to sex, relationships, work, politics, body image, consumption, religion and the future (in that order). Huntley draws from sociological studies (in particular, the work of Australian social thinker Hugh Mackay), her own interviews with Yers, and readings of cultural artefacts such as television programs and magazines.

Nearly half the book is devoted to Y’s sexual politics, yet her subjects prove elusive. Is this generation more ‘liberated’ or ‘conservative’? And do these terms mean anything anymore? Huntley’s observations are perceptive but unsurprising. Regarding attitudes to homosexuality, for example, she notes significant differences between metropolitan and country dwellers, and observes that even in urban society the difference between acceptance and mere tolerance is unclear. Often Huntley places too much emphasis on the media as a genuine reflection of audiences. However, media-engineered issues like Virgin Pride and metrosexuality are hard to accept at face value. The fact that Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is popular prime-time viewing does not necessarily mean Yers are more accepting; in fact, it could be argued that Queer Eye is a deeply homophobic show. Also, the rise of the ‘New Lad’, as championed by magazines like Ralph and FHM, provides a disturbing counterpoint.

In other quarters, Huntley’s study walks solider ground. Regarding economic and social conditions, the picture is more universal, and not a great shift from the previous generation. Yers can expect no job security and are more likely to be employed as casuals or part-timers. They take for granted that tertiary education does not guarantee employment. They also have to pay for everything (health, education, etc.), and feel entitled to something in return. Yers face ridiculous rent prices and have been virtually locked out of the housing market. They tend to live with their parents until their mid-20s, and more than half depend on them for income support.

Both Xers and Yers are the dumping ground for more than two decades of dubious social and economic engineering, suffering its effects while reaping little reward. To the political class, young people are non-existent. The Howard government ended all funding for youth affairs shortly after coming to power. In 2004, the Minister of Children and Youth Affairs was demoted to a Parliamentary Secretary; and recently the portfolio was dropped altogether.

In the light of these facts, the cynicism of the young generations can better be described as pragmatism. “Rather than apathy,” Huntley writes, “Y men and women project something more like powerlessness, either to change the political culture or to make progress with political issues.” Xers can remember a time when things were different, whereas Yers take the present insecurity and climate of greed as the way things have always been.
Huntley’s analysis is well-balanced, but at times treading lightly on some troubling issues (for example, the fact that Yers are the most heavily medicated generation in history). Other commentators have been more damning. For example, writing in the Melbourne Age recently, journalist and researcher James Norman argues that this young generation shows evidence of “a cultural malaise resulting in massive disengagement with the political realities that will affect their future lives” (“Howard’s young people are shallow and disengaged”, February 23, 2006). They are mired in hyper-consumerism, social conservatism and an “ethos of debt, competition, user-pays culture, and rampant individualism.”

Although Huntley avoids complexities and steers clear of the larger historical picture, her book accomplishes what it sets out to do, providing a breezy snapshot of a neglected generation. Hopefully it stirs some debate and helps put the future back on the agenda.