5 Feet of Fury

Rick McGinnis: Jian Ghomeshi and the sexual revolution hangover

Rick McGinnis writes:

Because the first thing that struck me wasn’t just that Ghomeshi was only three years younger than me, but how many of the people implicated in the trial, from his co-workers and accusers to his superiors, were members of Generation X – the “trough generation” or “baby bust” that followed the Boomers. (…)

The sexual revolution, once a battleground, was now a historical artifact and we got to live in its aftermath, like civilians rebuilding their bombed city from rubble; given what we had to work with, it was no surprise that nothing fit together the way it once did. (…)

It was in this world that concepts like “starter marriages” and “friends with benefits” became universally understood.

Which is why, when I read news form the Ghomeshi trial where his accusers kept in touch with him after his alleged assaults – even sending him come-ons by e-mail, while the accused kept this correspondence almost like trophies – I didn’t shake my head in wonder at their poor judgment or his perverse mementos…