so what is kick ass?

My own notion, pre-dictionary, would be this:

“An adjective that describes someone or something pretty hard core without being rock-hard hard core. Potent, fiery, purposeful, and yet surprisingly suave. An admiring, positive word.”

From the trusty Oxford English Dictionary:

kick-ass adj. (U.S. slang) rough, aggressive, powerful. Ex. 1977, Rolling Stone, 16 June 60/3 “Jan Hammer's cranked-up Moog and Beck's raving guitar, given even a taste of fusion's structure, turned especially *kickass.”

Kick ass is to Millennials as hardcore is to Generation X. Or as kick butt is to a wannabe dad.

 

 

But don’t confuse kick ass with badass:

Badass is more brute force. Badass is causing a smack down on the playground because you wanna, while kick ass is giving the badass grief because you gotta. Oxford English Dictionary says badass is “Belligerent or intimidating; ruthless; tough.

Kick ass has evolved in it’s short lifetime, so that currently: “if something’s kick ass, its really cool. Great! As in it kicks the ass of all else. It can be inanimate and still kick ass.” This notion of kick ass originates from the verb “to kick ass,” as in, to beat the hell out of someone, like in scrabble, or in jail. I'm just saying. Kick ass can also just mean “To be really, really, really cool.” (Urban Dictionary) My roommate tells me, “I think Thucydides is pretty kick-ass."

What a nose. He'd be 2472 this year, which is... kick ass? Well, whatever.

So there you have it. Lastly, I’m fully backing my decision to use this cuss word. It screams, “Check me out, I swear! But no one’s gonna bust me for saying ass, because it’s mature to accept swearing in college” ...which just goes to show how much of a baby you really are if you think this. But most youngsters like us do, at one point in our lives, and this blog represents us millennial youngsters.

*Apparently kick ass, kick-ass, and kickass are all legit.

on "The Millennial Muddle"

Eric Hoover's article "The Millennial Muddle," left me feeling rather skeptical about the whole idea of the Millennials. I agree that this grouping of adolescents ('84-'04 ish) can be studied for patterns in attitudes, personalities, goals, etc, and compared to other generations to see how growing up has evolved from the previous grouping, the Generation X. I bet big events like 9/11 and Vietnam would cause a certain shift in the world view a kid grows up with - mine did.

However, Mr. Howe's expertise seemed like a lot of fluff to me. We're a hero generation, really. We ascribe the competitive college admission process to the baby boom and the spreading obsession of name-brands. The idea that all Millennials want a power car seems like complete rubbish. I especially loved hating the line, "For emphasis, he pauses, then says of Millennials, 'They are so special.' “This sounds like a bragging mother at a crafts fair, or a school counselor trying to show why her faculty position is necessary -- who's paying him to say these things? Actually, lots of people. Ford, Al Gore... Mr. Howe a genius for finding and monopolizing such a bizarre field of specialization. When Hoover sights the educational proof working against Howe, it makes me want to say "duh." There are far too many adolescents in the US to be able to make such sweeping generalizations.

Ms. Twenge on the other hand seems too determined to prove the Millennials are more narcissistic than ever before. I was about to say that’s untrue, but is my pride for this generation a sign of my own narcissism? Defense pessimism explains her theory is in case, but I see it as a cowardly way of not supporting her own research.

Only a few weeks ago I was discussing with a friend how an older friend of mine met her husband. I thought it was so striking when she had said, “I always felt like I was born to love someone, but I kept getting stuck with bad men.” I’d never heard someone admit that they wouldn’t be complete without another person. It opposes our generations’ mottos “"Be yourself,” and “You can be anything you want to be."

(Okay, all that said, I love how much of a kick-ass hero Veronica Mars is. I want to be her. Maybe I really am a millennial after all).