There’s an intergenerational war going on, and this time it’s not between Baby Boomers and Millennials.
It’s actually between Millennials and Gen Z, and their current dispute involves each group’s differing fashion and beauty choices.
Gen Z, which is said to include those who were born from 1997 to 2012, according to the Pew Research Center, appear to favor looser-fitting clothes and symmetrical hairstyles per viral TikTok videos.
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In other words, these under 25 trendsetters are sick of skinny jeans and side-parted hair, which have been highly favored by Millennials who were born from 1981 to 1996.
And Millennials are not taking the online mockery they are receiving from their younger counterparts very well. Some have even fired back with tweets that rebuke these changing trends.
“Gen Z just doesn’t realize yet that what start out as regular jeans in your 20s often become skinny jeans in your 30s entirely on their own,” joked comedy writer and children’s book author Jill Twiss on Valentine’s Day.
A more recent tweet from the editor-in-chief of Baltimore Magazine, Max Weiss, expressed resistance to the style change from a financial perspective.
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“I’ve always been a fan of bellbottoms, so I resisted skinny jeans for a long time. Now I have a closet full of skinny jeans,” Weiss playfully wrote on Monday. “Not only do I like the way they look, they were a freaking investment. You’ll take my skinny jeans from my cold dead thighs, Gen Z!”
Even YouTuber Colleen Ballinger pleaded with Gen Z to leave high-waist jeans alone despite the younger demographic having already expressed a preference for low-rise pants.
“Oh dear god please don’t let low rise jeans come back! PLEASE GEN Z DONT DO IT!” Ballinger tweeted. “They looked bad when we wore them in the early 2000s and they look bad now. I’ll give you my side part and my skinny jeans. JUST DONT TAKE MY HIGH WAISTED JEANS PLEEEEASE!”
Meanwhile, other Millennials have taken to Twitter to defend their beloved side-parted hairstyles with written arguments and selfies to prove which style looks better on them.
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Defensive tweets have severely racked up in the last month after Millennials discovered a viral TikTok video from user @missladygleep, who boldly said side parts in hair aren’t a good look back in July.
“Prove me wrong, but I don’t think that there is a single person with looks better with a side part than they do with a middle part,” she remarked in her popular clip, which has received several comments from TikTokers demanding to see how she styles her side part.
Musician and singer Dallon Weekes chimed in on the contentious trend on Sunday.
“I’ve been battling the naturally occurring ‘middle part’ in my hair since the mid 90’s. And NOW it’s cool!?” He questioned in a tweet. “Still not gonna do it, though. I’ve fought too long.”
Others noted that they have either succumbed to the hair trend or see the humor of it all.
“Thankfully, I have a middle part. Please don’t make fun of me, Gen Z I’m scared of you guys,” wrote Sydney Esiason Martin, the daughter of retired NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason.
Canadian reporter Bethany Lindsay shared she remembers being critical of Gen X’s (those born from 1965 to 1980) fashion and beauty preferences when she was younger.
“As an Older Millennial, my favourite part of the skinny jeans/side part thing is that I remember mocking Gen Xers for literally the same fashion choices,” she tweeted Tuesday.
The discrepancy between Millennials and Gen Z even extends to each group’s go-to emojis. Millennials reportedly like to express their laughter with a tears of joy emoji while Gen Z reportedly like to use a skull emoji to represent they’re “dead,” the slang word that shows they “find something hilarious,” according to Urban Dictionary.
“This is an appropriate moment to launch war against Gen Z,” journalist Alex Kantrowitz joked earlier this month.
Culture writer Marianne Eloise had harsher words to describe the differences between Millennials and Gen Z.
“Gen Z [doesn’t] think you’re uncool because of your skinny jeans or lame emojis,” she tweeted on Monday. “They think you’re uncool because you’re old and they aren’t and so it will continue for all time with every generation until the sun burns.”
