The Whiniest Generation
Yesterday, in the Costco Parking Lot, a seventysomething woman was trying to squeeze into a narrow spot in her not-so-narrow Cadillac. Between sudden whiplash lurches and the sound of her side-view mirror clumping against the car on her right, she wasn’t happy. “You’re doing fine”, I told her, trying to Boy Scout her into the spot. “I am not doing fine!” she shouted. “It upsets me that I can’t pull right in!” Like it was my fault. Like I was that one said, “Get the triple-wide car, dear.” And I was suddenly filled with the anger of a guy in his mid-30s who is tired of hearing old Americans complain about things.
They are, I know, the greatest generation. They stormed the beaches at Normandy and saved the world. And then, back home after years of blood and dirt, they raised bedroom cities, built skyscrapers and atom smashers and sent a man to the moon. But today they mostly drive too slowly. They purchase many of the lame products you see on late-night TV. Politicians can scare a million of them before breakfast, terrify the rest before lunch and claim to “save Medicare” by dinner-time.
How did this generation – forged in war, tempered by mortar fire, flinty and rock-tough in their fatigues and counterman’s hat – gets so whiny? How do you get from “Next stop, Berlin!” to “I’ve so old and I can’t get up”?
(From: Newsweek. February 17. 2003.)
12 Discuss the relationship between different generations in Russia.
13 Match the words in the left column with their definitions in the right column. Make the sentences using the new words.
1. Stigma |
A. an application for legal action to be taken
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2. Breadwinner |
B. children who have their own key to their home because there is no one to let them after school
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3. Petition |
C. living together as husband and wife without being married
|
4. latch key kids |
D. a reputation of shame or dishonour
|
5. Permissive society |
E. a person supporting a family financially by earning money
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6. Cohabiting |
F. a term given to a society which allows people a great deal of freedom, especially sexual freedom
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Another issue related to the modern family is called “working mothers”. Read the text below and try to explain the words in bold. Working Mothers – Guilty Mothers?
Do mothers who work do so to the detriment of their children? Can toddlers who grow up with full-time, quality day care do as well as their peers who had full-time moms? The debate is nearly as acrimonious as the argument over abortion. And as in that argument, each side in the working-moms debate appeals to emotions, insisting that the issue is clear and obvious, if only you see it from their side.
Until relatively recently, most mothers in Western Europe did not take paid work outside the home. Sometimes women did voluntary work, especially those of the middle classes. However, most women’s main (unpaid) labour was to run the home and look after their family. Whether they did this themselves or supervised other people doing it was a matter of class and money. By entering the labour market, women have now altered the face of family life. As the role of the woman in the family changed, so did the role of the man.
Recent legal changes have given women new opportunities. In 1970 the Equal Pay Act attempted to stop discrimination against women in the field of employment. In 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act was a further attempt to protect women in employment, education and other areas. The 1975 Employment Protection Act gave women the right to maternity leave.
In Britain today women make up 44% of the workforce, and nearly half the mothers with children under five years old are in paid work. It is not uncommon to find that the mother is the main breadwinner. The incentives for women to work or to return to work are increasing all the time, but there are still problems for women who want or have to work.
Although there is a greater acceptance of men taking more of an interest in child care and domestic duties, studies show that men’s and women’s roles have not changed as much as could be expected. In most families working women are still mothers, housekeepers and income providers. There is a stigma attached to the phenomenon of “latch key kids”. Society expects someone – usually the mother – to be there. Because of the difficulties of combining the mother role with the demands of a career, women’s work also tends to be low-paid and irregular.
