I'm "only" 31.

Although I do sometimes feel I'm from a different generation than the majority of this board's members. (Not in a bad way - more when people are discussing high school and college, which were 10+ years ago for me...)

I'm a baby boomer. Attitudes have changed, twirled around a few time and come back full circle (in a different guise...) I do find that curious. I was part of the Women's Movement in the 70's and 80's and lesbians then were deeply scornful of role play ie. butch and femme. This was the style of the lesbian community in the 50's, and by 70's , that form of pairing were considered "aping heterosexuality" and VERY taboo.

In the 90's I end up in Canada and found that all the under 30's were full on into butch/femme style again. And I was totally mortified that one of my gf's was into wearing make up, ahhh! I was raised in the bosum of feminism when we were all mostly androgynous, mocked the fashion trends of the day, and bought all our clothes in thriftshops! In fact, I think we were trend setter somewhat. I remember when the boutiques started selling dungarees a few years after we had been buying them from army and navy shops for years :)

Now we're back to sniffing at butch/femme roles. Its remarkable the way some young lesbians have been outraged at why "they would be interested in women who look like men" !! Wow. Its as if there's a whole generation who have no knowledge or understanding of gender and identity politics. Are we so bad at passing on the torch of our experiences and mistakes? Maybe....

And now many young women who fall into the butch end of the spectrum think they're transexuals and move towards changing their sex. I find that sad. Its as if the possibilities of expressions of our own identities have narrowed again. And given the ubiquitous phenomenon of going under the knife to solve our emotional/psychological problems in the West, I'm not surprised that those who don't quite "fit in" to the limited boundaries of what is male/female today often decide to take that route.

btw, my observations are broad strokes of the big picture. Of course many in the lesbian community don't fit neatly into those boxes. Which is great!

OK, now I'll get off my soapbox :)

I think the gaps that I've seen on the forums here are normal.  I'm just at that 35 age and I agree it's more life-event stuff that divides our interests. :)

I think there are bound to be shifts in attitudes toward gender politics. I fall on the side of completely oblivious. :) I also think that's normal because several friends of mine who are older are hard-core aware, activists or pioneers of sorts.  It's like breathing...ebb and flow...

At 26, I am already feeling the gaps between the ages.  I'm finding I identify more with people older than me than people who are younger.  No one is really stepping up in my age group or younger.  More needs to be done... we're not done and apathy won't get us very far.

**A woman needs a fine and rare sincerity and a good amount of high-minded simplicity to determine what it is in her that tips the scale and adds some standard and approved element to her clandestine sex life.  Sincerity is not a spontaneous flower.**

I'm 36 and have only recently come out.  During the mid-80's, when I came of age, there weren't really any positive lesbian images available in the mainstream media that I could identify with.  I think that this influenced my decision to stay closeted for so long.

Although I can't speak to what it is to be young and gay today, there seem to be more role models and better support systems in place nowadays.  Today lesbians are portrayed in a more positive and more diverse way in the media, but we still have a long way to go.

This may not be the correct thread to add this comment to, but here it goes anyway.  On another forum we've been discussing the way lesbians are depicted in alt/fic.  Early works featured the required tall, dark butch and the lipstick femme as it were, a la Uber style.  Even more popular authors such as Radclyffe still pen the distinct roles in some recent books. 

But there are also more novels coming out by younger authors that portray the lesbian pairings as less defined, more equil.  In those it would be harder to identify the main characters as either butch or femme, but just as lesbian with traits of both.

So while the age gap will always be in effect, I believe there is a lessening of the perceptions of gender roles.  Everyone needs an identity, just not necessarily a box.

the same generational gaps apply to lesbians as to other socia groups...

mainly, for me, I cannot relate being able to be out in high school, or having support groups in one's teens or anything like that, I simply cannot... it would have been suicide for me to even imagine this when I wasa teenager... but then, I had the option when I hit my twenties, of being out, and loud, and proud.. and the generation of lesbians that came before me, could mostly probably only imagine this, if that... and I have friends in their sixties who were horribly opressed, and lived double lives...

and so on

there is always a disparagy in experience, that means each generation is different...