The June Recap
In June the theme was, of course, PRIDE month. As the editor in chief I had concerns on how we were going to approach this month. Striking the balance of making sure our queer readers are recognized properly without performative allyship that is so much the corporate norm today.
We wanted to keep our writing organic, interesting, and authentically supportive. While I think we did well and take great pride in the fact we show allyship and representation all year long in our writing, you will have to be the ones who tell us we did it right.
In the closing of this article we will list the top five of June that you read. But I wanted to take a moment to thank you for making the top five the top five. The articles that you made the top five showed me that we have an audience that wants to dig deeper and have a little fun.
The fun was Tiffany. She was the top Fem Friday for the month of June which means that we still have time for the little things to matter. The rest of the articles you engaged with were the most important socially. Women’s issues, personal stories of queer people, and the work men of my generation need to do to help create a better now and a stronger future for all of us.
In a time where people think society is merely vapid memes and soft news, we have an audience that proves with every click that significant things matter.
Coming in July
The focus in July is going to be seeing Z and the other generations after X though a kinder and more celebratory lens than I see other Gen X based content doing. It will kick off strong with a hard hitting article about the dark side of nostalgia by Jeremy Ritch. Then there will be an Open Letter to Gen Z that will be very important. Week one will then close with a very special Fem Friday about an icon of my generation passing the torch to an icon of today to keep the work going.
In the weeks after that you will see interviews I have done the last few months with Gen Y and Gen Z people who have a voice that needs to be heard. Authors, record store owners, and more. We feel it will be an important month with an important emphasis and it has a not so secret agenda.
When I started Gen X Watch, it was inspired by seeing the universal popularity of the Netflix show Stranger Things and how it has created an important and unique phenomena to our time. There is more than a resurgence of an interest in a specific time, but something deeper going on.
For those of us who are in Gen X. Imagine Glenn Miller’s In the Mood and Doris Day’s Sentimental Journey topping the charts on our radio stations and MTV. That is exactly what happened when Kate Bush and Metallica climbed the Billboard Charts right here in the 2020’s.
As Gen Z is discovering the music and mediums of my time not only are record stores and film photography becoming more popular then ever, but the Golden Girls and other things from my time are coming into popularity. As someone who has loved, listened to, and learned from Gen Y and Z I saw an opportunity for generational bridges to be built with greater understanding and a better world with strength in numbers in a unified voice about things that matter.
The problem? The most popular Gen X creators earn their clicks by elevating my generation by bullying, insulting, and diminishing our younger siblings, children, and grandchildren. Since I started this project peers send me reels and tik toks they think I will find funny. Instead, I am mortified all too often. This is not what I value. The relationship I have with my adult child and their friends is what I want more of. There is an intersection that can benefit all of us, but we need to be more mature for that to happen. It is on us.
Our largest demographic at Gen X Watch is Gen X women followed closely by Millennial women. This makes me so proud and lets me know we are hitting a good tone for that to be our base.
But our Gen Z readership is almost next to nothing. July is going to be the month where we try to earn their time. Not market. Not manipulate. Earn. I hope we are successful because I would love to have Gen Y, Z, and Alpha columnists here building a bridge that makes us better.
Fem Friday the YA Novel?
After some discussions with a friend who works for a publisher, it has been decided that a very special aspect of the Fem Friday articles is being made into a YA trilogy set in the 80s. For a beautiful and powerful window I not only celebrated the iconic women of the 80s who still have a cultural and social impact today, but included stories of young women I knew between 1988 and 1991 who were inspired by these women to live life differently. And they had affected me in powerful ways.
Not only did those stories catapult in engagement that went near viral status, but readers commented powerfully about how they saw themselves in these women and the stories of what they experienced and sometimes overcame!
So a YA trilogy is underway. The novels will focus on the stories of a woman I knew in that time known here as Cassie. In three columns about Debbie Harry, Poly Styrene, and Kate Bush, many of you fell in love (as I did decades ago) with Cassie. Many of the other people readers met and fell in love with will exist in this fictional universe.
Like many YA novels published today, they will be universal for people of all generations to read and enjoy. There are important and universal themes for people of all generations. The first novel will be released sometime in 2025 with books 2 and 3 released as swiftly as we can to keep the momentum and the engagement going.
In Gen X Watch we will be releasing special material celebrating these women and offering readers opportunities to have “cameos” in the books among other things to help fund some of my costs for a future book tour and make sure advance copies go to our readers as a thank you for inspiring this journey of entertaining stories with important themes for women.
Limited Time Requires Changes
I have a full time job as does my other key contributing columnist, Jeremy Ritch. To keep giving quality content while managing our lives we have made the structure of Gen X Watch to be 3 times a week. Since this focus and reduction of content a few months back it has led to a 34% reduction in readership. The way Search Engine Optimization and Algorithms work now, if you are not creating content daily and constantly in the feeds of multiple social media venues, you are less visible. When you are less visible, people are sharing your content less often.
In my 4 year hiatus from being a columnist online, the SEO and ALGO has changed in an unfortunate manner. It is more difficult than ever before for audiences and content creators to connect.
We rely on our core audience to support us by sharing, engaging and becoming a Patreon.
With this new book project underway the podcast and youtube channel had to be let go of for now. There is just not enough time or hands on deck to make that happen at this time. I do not know when that will be a part of the Gen X Watch world, but for now it is on the backburner.
Trying to get the pieces in play and record initial content already has the second issue of the quarterly zine behind schedule and the Patreons who give their hard earned money to make this whole thing possible have not been getting the interaction from me that they deserve.
Know that we are always looking for people to write, do reels, and add their flavor to our social media.
The more of you who share, comment, help as a Patreon, and create content, the more things we can do and the more hope of a future we have together.
Your Top 5 For the Month of June!
Below are your top five articles. There are 6 this month because there was a tie for 5th place! As we get set for a hard hitting and great July, feel free to end June checking out our best as voted by you, our readers. Without you we are just old geezers talking to the air instead of being living time machines! Thank you!
Tied for Five: Tiffany and Jeremy Ritch!
Four is About Locker-Rooms no More
Three is Freddie Mercury!
Two Goes Out to You! The Women!
And the Number One? Miami Vice, Queer Coding, and a Coming Out Story!
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Stay Totally Awesome! Stay true to you!
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