The Ethos of Cool vs. the Ethos of Chill
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from coast to coast when he observed of his niece’s “plurally made” sense-of-self,
“She said she used to be a punker, and now she’s a new romantic and she dresses
like something out of ‘Gone With the Wind.’ Pick and choose your lifestyle to
suit your current mood and fashion.” This is something new—a “Chinese menu
approach for their lifestyles,”6 as Avila goes on to say of Generation Y.
“Lifestyles”7 remains a contentious term for old-school lexicologists,
who object that it “elevate[s] habits of consumption, dress, and recreation to a
primary basis of social classification.”8 No matter. Transcending (but not
necessarily eschewing) questions of social interactions, and in a wink of twent