Actually writer Douglas Coupland, who popularized the
term, is Canadian and the concept behind it is meant
to be limited not just t to North America but the
whole of the Western English speaking world.  

I'm not sure Bangladesh or Panama was on his mind when
he wrote the book, but Generation X is a phrase based
on  attitudes in a growing consumeri/service sector
economy for the children born from 1967 - 1978. It is
undertstood primarily as a Pan-American phenomenon not
a global term.

Gerald Rojek

--- Timothy McShane <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The Roman numeral explanation is interesting, but
> looks like a folk
> etymology for the term.  As listed in the Wikipedia
> article reference
> earlier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X),
> the term was coined
> by a British author in a study of British youth, and
> subsequently
> popularized by a British punk rock group.  The Gen X
> phenomenon was/is
> world-wide, and any suggestion that it has an
> American origin, based on
> American history, and (presumably) only of relevance
> to Americans
> strikes me as a bit limiting.
> 
> I hope this post doesn't come off as a "shoot the
> messenger" kinda
> thing--I intend no disrespect to anyone over this. 
> However, cyber-space
> is overwhelmingly dominated by American culture, and
> this seems (to me,
> anyway) to be giving rise to an Ameri-centrism that
> will allow erroneous
> claims (such as the Roman numeral Gen X thing) to go
> unchallenged.  I
> just wanted to take the opportunity to set the
> record straight on this
> matter, and demonstrate that there's still a big
> world out there beyond
> the U.S.
> 
>      - Tim (a proud Canadian Gen-Xer)
> 
> >>> [log in to unmask] 08/31/05 7:35 AM >>>
> On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 10:29:51 -0500, Creel, Wesley
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> >Good Morning All,
> >I would like to build on what Deb has said,
> regarding the definition
> of
> >the term "Generation X"...... I remember reading a
> definition a
> couple
> >of years ago....(I think it was an essay in the
> Atlantic Monthly,
> that
> >the letter "X" referred to the Roman numeral X,
> meaning 10....and the
> >generation in question was the 10th generation,
> following this
> nation's
> >revolution of 1776......
> 
> The term "Generation X" was popularized by the Doug
> Copeland book of
> the
> same name, published in 1991.  The phrase reflects
> the confusion
> expressed
> by so many cultural observers who finally noticed
> that there were all
> these
> young people running around who -- gasp! -- weren't
> boomers.
> 
> Strauss and Howe in their book "Generations" (also
> published in 1991)
> label
> us the "13th Generation" -- the 13th to know and
> live under the
> American
> flag.  Since independence, we're about
> nine-and-a-halfth, assuming one
> accepts the generations they defined.
> 
> Eugene Dillenburg 
> 
>
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