What Is . . . Yellowjackets?

(aka Gen X Women)

Let’s see . . . yellowjackets are wasps—we all know that. Yellowjackets is also a TV show on Showtime about a group of teenage girls on a high school soccer team in the nineties. Their plane goes down in a forest in the middle of nowhere, and they have to figure out how to survive. Things quickly go awry, like, in a horror-type fashion (this show is not for the faint of heart). The storyline follows their life in the Wilderness, as they call it, but also as present-day adults. After watching both seasons of it (and loving it), I have decided that it’s all about the true yellowjackets: Gen X women.

You see, we Gen X ladies, we were thrown into the Wilderness of the eighties and nineties and told we had all the tools to not only survive, but also to have it all. But there have always been powers beyond our control, lurking, maybe even hunting: sexism, misogyny, perfectionism, double standards, the expectation to not complain, the illusion of choice, the pitting of one against the other (stay-at-home moms against working moms, singles against marrieds, mothers against child-free).

Yellowjackets, ahem—Gen X women, maybe haven’t always been the most open or evolved, but I think we do make a point to learn along the way. To adjust. To adapt. We’re rarely perfect. We don’t always show our emotions because, to succeed in a man’s world, we couldn’t complain about workplace harassment or discrimination. Crying on the job, or anywhere else, was considered too emotional, if not hysterical. We’re protective because we’ve had to be. Because no one really wants to know what it’s like to be a middle-aged woman in a world where it’s felt like a constant fight.

But if the world is burning, I would choose Melanie and Christina and Juliette and Tawny for survival any day of the week (even though, yes, I love Pedro Pascal as much as the next person) because Gen X ladies have had to dig themselves out of the Wilderness to make it to middle age. We’ve had to be tough, even if all people see is a soft exterior. We’ve had to bury our emotions until we realize that therapy actually does help. We’ve been through the fall of the Cold War, two Bush presidencies, the Trump fiasco, and a pandemic.

And we’ve survived. Dare I say thrived?

So, don’t mess with a Gen X woman. Regardless of what you think her to be, I guarantee you she’s had to learn how to steel her soul, and survive, and rely on her smarts, and trust no one but herself. Until she learns that the ladies around her have had to fight too. And they close in and surround her in her time of need.

Those Yellowjackets, they’re a little weird and a little scary. But they’ve been through some shit, and when you really need them, they’ll help you get through yours. They may not always show up the way you want or expect, but they will be there. 

And if you’ve watched the show, you know Gwen was never just a girl. 

So, if you can handle great writing, even better acting, some blood and horror, I recommend Yellowjackets, the TV show. And if the world is coming to an end, I recommend you befriend a Gen X woman.

And, as always . . .

Stay Curious.