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In the early 1980’s and 1990’s the youth culture was predicted to lead to the end of

civilized life as we know it. Well, maybe not all that, but the Beavis and Butthead Syndrome

(Epstein, 1998), as it has been called, did make things seem bleak. Aggression, rape, theft,

general mischief, and ever degrading intelligence seemed to burst at the seams of society;

however, now ten years later, what happened to that view of the so-called generation X’s

rebellion. Did it fizzle out like so many wars of that era, or has it mutated into a new strain of

strange and revolt? As this topic is so broad, I will only be covering what is important in regards

to teenage sexuality in the now maturing and aging generation X. To better understand the

change of sexuality of the aging generation X, one must look at what generation X is considered,

what the cultural climate of their time was, how it has changed, what the now aged teenage sex

culture is, what its impacts are, and what its dangers could be.

Generation X is a broad1 term for the “baby bust” of post-world-war-two America

(Epstein, 1998). Born between the early 1960’s and the late 1970’s, they were considered to be

the most violent and sexually driven generation in many decades. They lacked “motivation…

(and are) illiterate” said one writer (Delvaux, 1999). Named after a Billy Idol band of the same

name (Darity, 2008). So where are they today? They were supposed to burn the earth to the

ground out of misguided rage from lack of parenting and missed opportunities to be someone

important, having to settle as just restless “white-collar slaves” in a world where they never had

their opportunity to prove themselves (Palahniuk, 1996). Besides the rise in violence and crime,

the eighties and nineties also saw a marked rise in divorcé rates (Darity, 2008). In the

controversial novel Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk illustrates the “twenty-something” individual

and his feelings of cosmic misplacement. About how grown men beat each other to feel like their

lives have some meaning, Palahniuk illustrated the confusion and brutish generation. Much of

1
As nearly every source holds a different definition.
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the confusion for this group is attributed to their births after the Great War (Epstein, 1998), too

young for the Asian conflicts, and too young for the hippie movements of the 1960’s and the

disco movements of the 1970’s. In Palahniuk’s work, he describes generation X as fatherless and

identity-less. In a famous dialogue between the two main characters “,… if our fathers are our

role models for god, and they ran out on us, what does that say about god?” Others describe the

Beavis and Butthead Syndrome where the youth of the late eighties (also parentless) as “ …

passively wait for life and spend most of their lives killing time, locked in a circular structure of

existence mostly played out in front of a TV” (Epstein, 1998). Other new terms for this

generation was the “latch key” children, where both parents worked and small groups of friends

and videogames did most of the parenting2. This bleak outlook seemed to prevail in every aspect

of youth culture for decades. With bands such as Motley Crue “dripping honey from her pot”,

and AC/DC doing “dirty deeds… dirt cheap” it would seem all of society was in a collision

course with a Red Dawn like destiny.

At the time of the raise of generation X; the cold war was in full swing, sex prevention’s

technology had caught up with its demand for the most part, and mass media had formed far

reaching tendrils into the everyday thought of Americans. The use of drugs, like psychological

“cure-alls”, were prescribed to give that little boost the “average” depressed youth instead of

dealing with their problems (Delvaux, 1999). The parents of generation x were the baby

boomers, with ideals firmly planted in modernism, to whom the Xer’s rebelled. This postmodern

society that was created cared about multiple world views and critical analysis of authority

figures (Darity, 2008). Studies of eighties teen culture suggests that media played a large role in

shaping the youth of the time due to the fact that “wigger"3 cultures have been documented as far

as Des Moines, Iowa (Epstein, 1998). Though television and movies such as Menace II Society

2
Also called the glass pacifier due to the extensive use of television.
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and MTV. The culture than of this generation is a reaction to the forces that created them, the

baby boomers. What better way to rebel against people who want you to just be happy and

successful than to be lazy, ignorant, and a “loser”? This principle of action reaction conjoined

with the wide spread reach of mainstream media shaped this generation into its present form. It

also however created a deep rift in family values. Due in part to the ever increasing

independence of generation x, but also due to the alienation the culture felt from the constant

pressure to do “better” or “live up to expectations”.

The generation x society was born into a confusing time for sexual ideals. On the one

hand conservatives of the fifties and sixties still held that people should wait to have sex till

marriage and not think or engage in sexual thoughts unless that condition is met (Montagu,

1969). However the waves of sexual change of the seventies and early eighties changed all that

with new world views, advances in birth control, and the fore mentioned reaction to modernism

(Epstein, 1998). With the advent of the birth control pill and improvements in condoms sex was

no longer as much of a danger of ending in a pregnancy (Montagu, 1969). This single fact alone

set the stage for many works of fiction written and filmed. If the only thing you’re avoiding is

pregnancy, then why should not teenagers have sex? The answer4 is in the aids and std epidemic

that sprung out of the nineties (Darity, 2008).

One of the confusing things about the Era of X is the feminine re-revolution (Oakley,

1987). Instead of dying out in the years following the sexual revolutions like so many other sub-

cultures due to the reaction principle, it was reawakening in the eighties and nineties by a new

class of feminists. Leaving ideas such as it is the man’s right to be the first to have sex with his

3
Slang for a Caucasian (usually male) person who demonstrates the characteristics of African
person in outward cultural tastes. Such tastes include dress, mannerisms, music, lifestyle, and
social group. Derived from the conjoining of two different slang words.
4
I am afraid.
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wife and do the honors of tearing the hymen first (Montagu, 1969), to a much more “laid back”

belief that sex is a normal part of a person’s life to be experienced some time in the teenage years

(Epstein, 1998). Survies conducted in the early and mid-seventies found that a little over fifth-

teen percent of girls’ age fifth-teen reported having sex in 1976, over five percent increase in just

five year (Spanier, 1979). However by nineteen over half of women survived reporting having

intercourse. While most had only had one partner, sixty-percent, a startling thirty-percent had had

two to three by age nineteen. Of course being the tail end of the sexual revolution this should

come as no big surprise. What is surprising however is the reaction to sexuality by generation x-

er’s. Instead of increasing and embracing the “swingers’” way of life, most of generation x in

fact became less sexually active in groups and returned to a sort-of happy medium (Epstein,

1998). Instead of having multiple partners and sex parties, many “latch key kids” chose to have

only one (two at most) very close intimate relationships, a small step back in wild sexual

escapades rather than a step up.

Films like Empire Records and Garden State displayed the culture’s affinity for both

music and drugs, but more importantly the magnitude of sex in the teenage mind. It was not a

simple thing one just did; it was a glorified holy coming of age ceremony that a teenager sought

after in reverence to the consequences5. The change in sexual practices mayhap can be attributed

to the openness of societal norms. As late as 1930’s professors were not allowed to even suggest

their students may engage in sexual behavior (Spanier, 1979), whereas today it is common

practice to poll students6 about their sexual practices in class. Though the metaphorical “high-

5
This regression in open relationships and sexual experimentation simply confuses me, as most pop-culture would
have you believe it was just the opposite.
6
Discretely of course.
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water-mark” of sex has receded, the general openness of today’s culture shows marked change in

just the last thirty years.

Generation x is almost always studied, now anyways, from the perspective of the past.

However, what has become of our children of doomsday and our punk rock-n-rollers? Though

best illustrated by the film Salt Lake City (abbreviated as SLC) Punk demonstrated, they grew

up. Though it went seemingly unnoticed, the culture that was supposed to “tear down” sky, is a

part of that of which they rebelled in the first place. Even during the height of their youth the

generation x-er’s only hurt themselves in the long run.

“While these activities – premarital sex, drug dealing, fighting, etc. – may be destructive

to a particular group of adolescents, the impact of this destructiveness will by and large

only affect that particular subculture, leaving society proper relatively unharmed.”

Thus for all the commotion over the destructive youths, really they were never too harmful to

society. In the film mentioned earlier, SLC Punk, the main protagonists is a member of a

subculture planted deep in the very religious area of Utah. Their rebel is mostly against these

religious groups trying to force them into being productive members of society. The protagonists

in the end tosses his old life of punk bands and drugs away and goes to Harvard Law, promising

in the end that one can do more damage from the inside of the system. Though romantic to think

the generation x-er’s are planning a comeback, it is more likely inaccurate. Jim Lindberg, a very

wrinkled punk rock enthusiasts, describes in his book, Punk Rock Dad, come to terms with being

older. He explains how one can rebel against mainstream and be “old” and how he has adjusted

to the life he once sang against in his band Pennywise. All of which seems more of a way to sell

books and try to reclaim his “mojo”.

Since generation x is considered anyone born roughly between 1978 to 1995, it is not

hard to see that they are not the young teens they once were. Not too old by any means, but not
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teens. With their growing age many new sexual problems will arise within the generation x

culture. Most significantly will be the physical problems. In Masters and Johnson’s Human

Sexual Inadequacy, wide arrays of sexual problems were studied. Most common of which are;

premature ejaculation, impotence, and dyspareunia (Masters & Johnson, 1970). Unfortunately

impotence and many others are a common part of life and aging. This is just another “hurtle” that

will have to be crossed soon by generation x as well as other sexual dysfunctions common with

age.

So what does all this mean, and for Pete’s sake what does this have to do with sexuality!

All this is going toward the fact that the culture of X is by and large a culture of late bloomers,

socially. An entire group of people, who for no easily describable reason, developed socially

later in life. This is evident in the high devoice rates (Darity, 2008), in the change in sexual

practices (Spanier, 1979), and in the way in which this past generation socialized (Epstein,

1998). This generation of change and rebel has grown into their parents, just later than expected.

This for the sakes of sexuality means later life marriages, more children out of wed lock, more

casual sexual practices, and more sexual dysfunctions than in previous generations. Not that

there are actually more dysfunction in generation x than in other cultures7 but rather that the

openness of this generation and the sexual knowledge and preoccupation of this generation

would cause them to invest in seeking help more readily than in generations past. This solitary

fact stands generation x apart from any other generation. Another reason that generation x is

sexually different from previous generations is the fact that woman are considered (from the

standpoint of North America and other more industries countries) equal in most every way

(Oakley, 1987). No longer is it just the woman who may talk about feelings, or the man who has

7
There most likely is more than average, but not by much.
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to work to support a family. The roles of men and woman have changed so dramatically in the

generation x-er’s that it is one of the major characteristics of the aged rebels.

In closing the generation x may get the chance to prove its worth soon as it comes its full.

Though a sexually and socially stunted people, it is clear they have paved a difficult road for in

interpersonal relationships. Showing that it is ok to express personal feelings or discuss private

practices. The people of the X may not be as sexually energized as those of the seventies, but it is

clear they have permanently changed the face of sexuality forever.

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Burnette, M.M. & McAnulty, R.D. “Sex and sexuality; sexuality today: treands and

controversies”. Westport, CT. Praeger Publishers. 2006.

Ed.Darity, W. “Generation X”. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 3(2) . 291-292.
Detroit. Macmillan Reference. 2008.

Delvaux, M. “The exit of a generation: the whatever philosophy”. Midwest Quarterly.

40(2): 171-186. 1999.

Ed. Epstein, J.S. “Youth Culture; identity in a postmodern world”. Malden, MS.

Blackwell Publishers, Inc. 1998

Johnson, V.E. & Masters, W.H. “Human sexual inadequacy”. Boston, MA Little, Brown

and Company. 1970.

Montagu, A. “Sex, Man & Society”. New York. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1969.

Oakley, A. “Sex, Gender & Society”. England. Gower Publishing Company Limited.

1985.

Spanier, G.B. “Human sexuality in a changing society”. Minneapolis, MN.Burgess

Publishing Company. 1979.