E-Gen might be bridging eras

Could I be a fossil from another age who is sometimes guilty in this #MeToo era?

It’s a serious question.

People close to me — friends, family, colleagues — likely would tell you that I’ve always tried to respect women.

To respect everyone, in fact.

But I don’t come from a generation that learned about political correctness. How to act seemed more like it was supposed to be common sense.

My dad was a very good man — my hero, in fact — but when we’d be in a restaurant, he was quite likely to tell a waitress, “Thanks, dear.”

He wasn’t being a squinty-eyed predator. It was just the way people spoke — and the waitress almost invariably would smile at the reference.

It was the same with the word “honey.”

You might be trying to get mounds of paperwork done, and say to a clerk: “Can you help me, honey?”

We can’t speak like that in 2018.

When you’ve learned something as a kid and basically practiced it all your life, though, it’s hard to change your entire method of human interaction.

So am I a dinosaur who is bound to get in trouble?

Maybe.

On the other hand ...

Perhaps a new, younger generation of women — the so-called “E-Gen” — could be heading back in time.

I’m wondering about this because of a conversation with two women who are both under 25.

I was leaving a spa in Post Falls and, without thinking, I turned to the women at the front counter and said, “Thanks, guys!”

Suddenly it struck me that I had called them guys.

Halfway out the door, I turned around.

“Hey, did that bother you that I used the word ‘guys’ when you’re obviously not?” I said.

“For that matter, would either of you have been offended if I’d said, “Thanks, dear”?

THEY WERE quick to say no, neither phrase was anything but a friendly thank-you.

And there was more, which is why I’m writing about this today.

The two young ladies — Emma Grebe and Josie Burton — went out of their way to suggest that the E-Gen is aiming back toward common sense, rather than picking apart each individual word to judge someone’s behavior.

“I think you’ll find younger women are not worrying about the little things so much,” Josie said. “Women our age usually just go by what’s right and what’s not.

“We’re not using any specific rules.”

Emma even suggested that there is kind of a fuzzy cut-off point (she made a chopping motion with her hand) between age groups, and that their generation wouldn’t be quite so harsh as the “MeToo” movement might suggest.

MAKE NO mistake, though ...

This isn’t to say they don’t deserve respect, or to be free from harassment.

“Well, of course,” Emma said, “but we’re more about putting what people say and do into perspective. Like, there’s nothing wrong if you say to a woman, ‘That’s really a nice outfit.’

“But if you say, ‘That’s a neat outfit because it makes your butt look great,’ that’s obviously not so good.”

You know, I’m thinking maybe what I learned long ago and still practice by habit fits better with young women than it might with the generations ahead of them.

However ...

I still have to work at adapting.

Sorry, Dad.

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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press.

A Brand New Day appears Wednesday through Saturday each week. Steve’s sports column runs on Tuesday.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com. Twitter:@BrandNewDayCDA