Silent Generation

On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph and Nathan detail all of the garments men wear to the beach and the various ways they make men look attractive. They begin with beachwear bottoms (speedos, jammers, box leg trunks, swim trunks, boardshorts), before discussing tops (tank tops, Hawaiian shirts, button downs, Italian knits), and accessories (straw hats, sandals, dive watches). Afterward, the boys examine how the version of preppy style common in coastal Southern states naturally resembles beachwear, citing the Ratliffs from the most recent season of The White Lotus as their primary example. They then discuss beachwear in additional TV shows and movies (The Beach, Seinfeld, and Magnum PI) before concluding with an exposé on shirtlessness. 

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Recorded on 6/15/2025

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration

“Gayborhoods” (also known as gay villages) are gay neighborhoods that emerged in the United States at the end of World War II. Returning soldiers were sent home to port cities like New York City and San Francisco, and the sudden influx of gay veterans in those places caused a profusion of gay bars to appear. But how did clusters of LGBT nightlife venues come to gain official recognition as neighborhoods? On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph and Nathan begin by detailing how Boystown in Chicago came to be the first officially recognized gayborhood in the country. They then survey gayborhoods in several other cities (Milwaukee, New York City, and San Francisco) before debating the pros and cons of living in gayborhoods in the modern era. 

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From Antarctica with Love by Allegra Rosenberg

Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement

The new LGBT neighborhood: Everywhere

Searching for the Last Lesbian Bars in America

Why Do Lesbian Bars Keep Disappearing? by Stef Rubino

What should a gay district look like in Detroit? Survey seeks input by Micah Walker

A Tavern On (Almost) Every Corner: Why Did So Many Chicago Bars Disappear? by Jake Smith

Making Chicago’s Boystown by Steven Jackson and Jason Nargis

Boytown: How Chicago Got its Gay Neighborhood

The History of Boystown's Rainbow Pylons

Decoplex - CARI Aesthetic

Labor Dispute Closes Berlin, the Beloved Chicago Gay Bar by Emily Schmall

Resistance Remains in Renaming of Chicago’s ‘Boystown’ Neighborhood to ‘Northalsted’ by Miguel Johnson

Berlin Nightclub Workers Call For Boycott As They Fight For Contract by Amber Stoutenborough

Berlin nightclub union demands

OUTgoing: Mapping the Hidden History of New York’s Gay Nightlife by Jeff Ferzoco

Photograph of the gay village in Manchester in 1995

The Simpson’s gay pride parade scene

Women & Women First book store

SoDoSoPa

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Gilbert Baker & “Raise the Rainbow” Workshop 

Recorded on 6/1/2025

Normcore is a “a post-authenticity coolness that opts into sameness.” The term was first coined by the trend forecasting group K-HOLE in their 2013 report Youth Mode: A Report on Freedom, which was a larger philosophical deliberation on the degree to which people should remain alternative into adulthood. This week’s episode of Silent Generation focuses on how the fashion world’s misclassification of normcore as an aesthetic caused internet aesthetics to become less subculture-oriented after the mid-2010s. Nathan and Solana begin by discussing the history of internet aesthetics by breaking them down into four categories and three periods: consumer aesthetics, early internet subcultures (2009-2014), Vaporwave-inspired aesthetics (2014-2020), and Tik Tok aesthetics (2020-2025). They then discuss the true meaning of K-HOLE’s report and question what normcore fashion conceptually looked like. They round out the episode by recapping the reasons why normcore killed off the subculture component of internet aesthetics: aesthetics could now be vibes or metaphysical concepts, aesthetics became a formula that could be capitalized off of by brands, and internet aesthetics became more fashion-centric. 

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Recorded on 5/25/2025

Utopian Scholastic is an aesthetic that was popular in the education field from the late 1980s to early 2000s. It consists of stock image collage, early CGI, references to academia, references to surrealism, and serifed fonts. On this week’s episode, Joseph and Nathan go into a deep dive of Utopian Scholastic and begin by discussing how the aesthetic was first identified by someone inspired by the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute. They then theorize how factors like the echo boom, utopian beliefs about the internet, and the relative parity of traditional and digital mediums caused Utopian Scholastic to first emerge. Amongst other things they discuss how Frasurbane acts as a base for the aesthetic and how the Eyewitness TV show replicated the style of DK Eyewitness books.

Links:

Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/silentgeneration/utopian-scholastic/ 

Utopian Scholastic CARI Page 

Utopian Scholastic Aesthetics Wiki Page

Evan Collin’s Utopian Scholastic Are.Na Page

The Most Overlooked Aesthetic : Utopian Scholastic by Kat Online

Utopian Scholastic Designs from a Pre-9/11 World

The post in Global Village Coffeehouse and Suze Huldt’s comments

Peggy McNamara’s art website

Ship With Butterfly Sails by Salvador Dali 

DK Eyewitness Intro 

The Making of Eyewitness

Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair

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The Arts in Education Poster

Recorded on 5/18/2025

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration 

On this week’s episode of Silent Generation the boys discuss what makes IKEA one of Joseph’s favorite companies. They begin by briefly summarizing how IKEA was founded by Swedish entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad in 1943 before detailing the various innovations that made it successful (the showroom model, flat packing, and self-assembly). They then talk about how IKEA acts as a point of cross-cultural exchange between Sweden and the United States through its furniture and food products. Amongst other things they discuss how IKEA just released their largest premium collection ever and may be experiencing the effects of premiumization, how IKEA was a pioneer in using recycled materials but is still responsible for 1% of the world’s annual wood consumption, and how IKEA has eight categories of consumers that they cater to but most strongly appeals to people in their 20s. 

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Everyday Tastes from High-Brow to Low-Brow, 1949

Everyday Tastes from High-Brow to Low-Brow, Modern Interpretation

Hacking IKEA - 99% Invisible 

IKEA - Acquired Podcast

IKEA Museum

House Perfect by Lauren Collins

IKEA Invented "Eureka Spiritis" to Showcase Its Quality Furnishings by Laura McQuarrie 

At what age do people stop shopping at Ikea? by Zachary Crockett

What's New at IKEA | IKEA's New LUXURY Collection!

Why You Might Want To Throw Away Your Black Kitchen Utensils and Takeout Containers by Christine Byrne 

These Ugly Big Box Stores are Literally Bankrupting Cities - Not Just Bikes

Artwork:

IKEA Store in Yokohama, Japan

Jmho, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded on 5/12/2025

Scene is a youth subculture that evolved from emo in the mid to late 2000s. Members of the subculture were typically referred to as “scene kids”, but scene kids with large online followings were also referred to as “scene queens” or “scene kings.” On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph and Nathan begin by sharing their theory that scene spread in a diffuse manner throughout exurbia (particularly in the Sun Belt) due to early social media sites like Myspace. They then detail the elements of scene fashion (brightly colored hair, heavy eyeliner, skinny jeans, band tees, kandi bracelets, and cartoon characters) before examining notable scene queens like Kiki Kannibal, Ambrehhh Is Dead, and Vanna Venom. Amongst other things they discuss how scene kids would act performatively hyper in the way that emo kids would act performatively sad, how Warped Tour’s lineup reflected the wide range of musical genres scene kids liked (metal, EDM, crunkcore), and how modern Zoomers and TikTok influencers have reinterpreted scene through scenecore. 

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Recorded on 5/5/2025

Vernacular architecture is architecture that uses local materials and traditional techniques to construct buildings without the guidance of licensed architects. It is surprisingly common in the United States despite the country's young age, including in cities like Chicago. This week the boys are joined by Will Quam, the founder of walking tour company Brick of Chicago, to discuss Chicago's rich vernacular traditions and building types. Amongst other things they discuss how the Great Chicago Fire led to the proliferation of brick architecture throughout the city, how Chicago produced over a billion common bricks per year at the peak of brick production, how many of the city's two and three flats were built using "plan books,"  and how the city has a "bungalow belt" of bungalow homes that were built in the 1920s. 

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4/28/2025

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration

Historical dressing refers to the act of wearing clothing that is authentic to a specific time period, while historical reenactment refers to the act of recreating past events (such as battles). These two overlapping activities and communities have much in common but are rarely analyzed together. On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph and Nathan begin by considering the psychological motivations behind historical dressing and reenactment. They then detail the various types of historical reenactment, where to buy reenactment clothing and supplies, and why some people chose to wear historical clothing daily. Amongst other things they discuss how “farb” is used as a pejorative term to describe inauthentic reenactors, how tailors like The Progressive Tailor hand stitch their clothing, how Dandy Wellington popularized the phrase “vintage style, not vintage values,” and what the debate around vintage values in the community really means. 

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I was obsessed with the mid 19th century as kid Blunderyears post 

Uniforms: Why We Are What We Wear by Paul Fussell

The Grenadier Company

The Grenadier Company’s crashing out Instagram post

The Ragged Victorians – The Great Unwashed

The Milwaukee Vintage Style Society 

Deer Hunting in the Oregon Cascades, circa 1925.

The Progressive Tailor - Instagram Page

The Progressive Tailor - Facebook Page

Pinsent Tailoring - https://www.pinsenttailoring.co.uk/ 

Pinsent Tailoring - Instagram Page

Dandy Wellington - Instagram Page

Mistress Pennywhistle - Instagram Page

What We Each Wear in a Week: 3 Daily Historical Fashion Wearers

‘I don’t see jeans in my future’: the people who wear complete historical dress – every day by Ammar Kali

Victorian Era Couple Live Like It's The 19th Century

Millennial Lives His Life In Victorian Era

This woman lives every day like it’s 1958

This man lives every day like it's 1965

The Meaning of ‘Vintage Style, Not Vintage Values’ in the Modern Age by Lena Bramsen

Fashion-focused Jan. 6 rioter who snapped selfies with Roger Stone and white supremacist arrested thanks to Instagram: Feds by Brandi Buchman

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Farb

Recorded on 4/22/2025

World’s fairs, now called World Expos, are large global expositions that exhibit the achievements of nations. They originally focused on industry and technology before shifting to a focus on cultural exchange and nation branding in the mid-20th century. On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, the boys go into a deep dive of several notable world’s fairs including the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, The 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, and the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. They conclude the episode by talking about how and why the world’s fair has declined as a cultural institution. Amongst other things they discuss how the Ferris wheel was first invented for Chicago’s 1893 world’s fair, how the 1904 St. Louis world’s fair put over 1,000 Filipino people on display, how the Van Wyck Expressway was extended to provide access to the 1964 NYC world’s fair, and how the newest world’s fair just opened in Osaka, Japan this week. 

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Recorded on 4/13/2025

Metrosexual is a term first coined by British journalist Mark Simpson in 1994. It is a portmanteau of the words “metropolitan” and “heterosexual,” and it describes straight men who care about their personal style in a similar manner to gay men. The term only entered mainstream discourse in 2002 after Simpson “outed” David Beckham as metrosexual in his Meet the Metrosexual article. On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph and Nathan compare and contrast the metrosexual with similar cultural figures like the flâneur and the Yuppie. Amongst other things they discuss how the 2003 series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy functioned as “metrosexuality: the reality TV show,” how there was a “retrosexual” backlash against metrosexuality towards the later half of the 2000s, and how we might be experiencing the fifth wave of the “men move to cities and become more stylish” phenomenon in the present day. 

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Recorded on 3/30/2025