5 Fearless Gen-Z Behaviors Millennials Wish They Had
Gen-Z is less willing to tolerate of the nonsense us Millennials did — and they should be commended for that.
Alex Perri | Unsplash “They don’t make them like her anymore,” said Harry. Harry was referring to his grandmother — a petite Italian nonna who probably stood no more than 5'1 in heels.
He held his grandmother as the ultimate gold standard in what a wife should be like, and it’s both cringe-inducing and understandable. His nonna is a lady to the core, but god help me, I don’t know anyone else who would tolerate the list of chores she had at her age.
She’s the type of lady who doesn’t sit down during dinner, but rather, keeps puttering around the kitchen whipping up dish after dish of Italian wonderment. She had five kids. She never was seen without heels and nails done. Oh, did I mention that she’s like…90?
It made me think. One of these days, people might end up saying similar stuff about me. And you know what? I’m okay with it after seeing the stark differences between Millennials and younger generations. As a millennial, I find these fearless Gen-Z behaviors to be the most important.
Here are the Gen-Z behaviors that Millennials wish they had:
1. Less willing to put up with garbage partners
I genuinely believe that all the horrible messages I got about “giving the nice guy a chance,” “geeks are sweet misunderstood guys,” and “standing by your man” are what hurt my dating life the most.
Millennial women, at least from my area, were raised with a ton of conflicting messages coming from men and women:
- Don’t tolerate bad behavior, but if you won’t be forgiving, you’ll be known as unreasonable.
- Find the guy who makes your heart sing, but if you turn down an unattractive guy, you’re an awful person.
- Don’t be intimate, but if you don't, you’re a prude.
- If he didn’t commit to you, it’s your fault.
Unsurprisingly, women of my generation often ended up blaming themselves whenever bad things happened because of men. We were taught not to say anything or something bad might happen.
Gen-Z women? Nuh-uh. They will talk about what happened to them. That discourse is insanely powerful, and it’s shedding light that most of us Millennials didn’t see until later.
This means that Gen-Z women are way more likely to enforce boundaries, and in a bold way, than Millennials. Are we also going to talk about how they use sanity checks? Yeah, that helps them ace that confidence and healthy relationship demand women my age often struggle with.
2. Support for women's rights
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I think this is partly because we’re seeing a bunch of old white men and angry conservative PickMe's peel back rights that women of my age took for granted.
Women are realizing that they’re under attack, and rightfully so, they’re reacting. They’re so much more likely to walk out on a date if they find out their date is conservative.
Women. I see you and I appreciate you. *raises coffee cup* I remember when I was 18, I’d hear women say things like, “Oh, I’m not a feminist but…” (Yeah, how’s that working out for you, fellow Millennials?)
3. Way more chill about what they wear
Fun fact: a huge portion of the bullying and exclusion that I faced in high school and college dealt with the clothes I wore. I still dress the same way. Unsurprisingly, I have more friends 10 years younger than me than I do my age.
The big difference? Outside of my homies from the streets or the rave scene, Millennials always judged me for being “the weird goth kid” or “the woman who dresses like a burlap sack.”
Gen-Z women don’t do that with others. They’re more likely to dress a little funky than other generations — thereby proving that we’re more than our sense of style.
4. Less likely to tolerate toxic workplaces
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I think this is partly because Millennials, Gen-X, and Boomers handed them a world that’s so dystopian that it’s intolerable. I can’t blame them for their “take no disrespect” attitude.
5. More inclusive and accepting of different people
Gen-Z gets inclusivity and its importance. Recently, I read about a 14-year-old who painted a mural that was meant to make everyone feel included. It involved LGBTQIA+ women, nonwhite people, and a hand of Hamsa.
Guess what the older generations did? If you guessed that they called it an act of hate and started railing against LGBTQIA+ representation, you win an internet thumbs up.
I’m mortified that so many of the people in my generation behaved that way. That child deserved applause for her hard work.
I hope to hear people say, “They don’t make women like her anymore” about my Millennial generation. Why? Because I want the generations after mine to have a more reasonable work-life balance, more confidence, and a better chance at a healthier life.
Millennial women still have a lot of the vestiges of internalized misogyny that we absorbed from Baby Boomers and earlier generations. That ain’t good. Gen-Z might still be developing, but from what I see, the kids are going to be alright.
Ossiana Tepfenhart is a writer whose work has been featured in Yahoo, BRIDES, Your Daily Dish, Newtheory Magazine, and others.