.......I think perhaps that I am a relic.
I must be, as there is no other explanation for the burgeoning disconnectedness I feel when observing how increasingly younger generations behave. They think they know everything, this Generation Whatever, blithely discounting those of us still young enough to worry about graying hair without having to actually cover it up. It is a collective of millions, most of whom have never been inside a library, never done research without Google or Wikipedia, and can't write a single page of opinion without resorting to message-speak. Theirs is a culture of gaming, gossip, and laziness. They complain about having less than their parents when, in fact, there's never been a group of kids who've had more.
It's through that lens, too, that they interact with one another, and how they define their relations with the opposite sex. The subtle, thrilling, delicious way that men and women used to flirt with one another, circling like electrons around the white hot center of their attraction has given way to a crude and garish world where everyone is a pimp, where preening camwhores spend hours taking just the right mirror shot for their MySpace page, where 15 year old Lolitas pass themselves off as 26, single, and living the high life when, in fact, their homework is piling up, a casualty of AIM and other such frivolities.
I was thinking about all of this over my holiday vacation as I watched the same scene unfold before me in an endless parade of restaurants, department stores, and ice cream joints. I watched one pretty young thing after another reach into their purse or bag to pay for the food or cologne or new underwear, while the beefcake thug or gangly goth boy they were with stood blithely by, arms crossed or hands buried so deep into their pockets you'd think they were mining for gold. There was never any pretext on the part of these men, never a faux attempt to reach for a wallet. They just stood there, blank and unaffected, saving their money for their own private plunders.
It was startling to me, for even though I believe in equality of the sexes, some things just don't seem right. I have a difficult enough time letting female friends pay for meals, but I couldn't possibly fathom ever allowing a girlfriend or wife pay for something like that. Even when I've been with strong and independent women, I just couldn't do it; you can be fierce and take care of yourself when we're apart, but when you're with me, I should be taking care of you.
Am I a sexist, then, for believing women should be equally capable and responsible for the financial costs of couplehood but never allowing the women in my life to do their fair share? Is there some part of me that really believes that women are weaker, incapable of shouldering the burdens of our modern world, or am I merely a traditionalist who yearns for simpler times, when men took care of their women in all ways?
If this is in fact a brave new world, if I must find the perfect mate via MySpace or Facebook, seduce her by text message, and then let her pay for our dates, the rent and my new pair of underwear, then I'm afraid that a relic like me will have a very hard time living in it.
.......
Mood: 
calm
Audio: Burt Bacharach & Elvis Costello - I'll Never Fall In Love Again