[Days of Broken Arrows]

(06-04-2015 02:04 AM)Grodin Wrote:  

I was 12 in 1989, so I may not remember the 80s quite as clear as some of you who are older, but I do think I remember enough to comment. The 80s are being glossed over quite a bit in this thread, and the mall thread.

Not that the 80s were all bad but, as glossed over implies, the bad is being overlooked. Rose colored glasses and all that.

80s culture in music and (especially) movies was a massive blue pill injection. The idea that the "nice guy" who waits around and absorbs a girls emotional menstruations will ultimately get the girl? That shit was on steroids in the 80s. See: Any movie staring John Cusack, St. Elmo's Fire, even Fast Times at Ridgemont High (great flick). The idea that broken families are the fault of some immoral jerk of a father? Some of my favorite movies including: E.T. and The Goonies. Divorce hit a peak in the late 70s and hollywierd was reacting (panicking?) trying to explain to us kiddos how it was faulty men to blame. Or am I wearing a tin hat?

The whole "career woman" thing also hit nitro in the 80s in fact I think that specific angle kind of mellowed out in the 90s, YMMV. To me the "shoulder pad" trend in the 80s is symblomatic of women envious and trying to imitate men (and I'm flattered).

I freely admit that I'm a little buzzed so I'm either being less accurate and well thought out, or more truthful and less censored.

All that aside though, a lot of these dating tips are great advice. You could even take a few of these, and with only a few minor tweaks, they'd be good advice for young men too. Only one that sticks out that I definitely don't agree with is high school girls going to colleges to hook up. I don't think I'll be passing that one on to my daughter.

I'll agree with your general consensus. The '80s had a lot of blue pill media. And on top of that, a lot of it set up the '90s in ways people don't even realize (i.e. the gender switched roles in "Who's the Boss" and "Mr. Belvedere; the "nice guys" you mentioned).

But...for every blue pill concept, there was some red pill going around.

*The strong, unironic praise for the nuclear family in "Family Ties" and scads of other sitcoms. Even if those sitcoms goofed on Republicans or things like that, the overall message was way different than it is today.

*Those movies about Betas winning might have lied. But they showed the Betas being persistent and that wasn't a lie. And some of their behavior would now be considered harassment or stalking ("Say Anything"). So, in that context, were the Betas as Beta as they seemed then?

*Total machismo at the movies, done with no irony. "Lethal Weapon," "Predator," the "Rocky" franchise. On top of that, they weren't afraid to show women as psychos, like in "Fatal Attraction" or "Author Author" -- an obscure pet favorite of mine, written by the dad of one of...

*...the Beastie Boys, and tons of metal and early rap artists were on the radio or the charts saying things that would cause Twitter breakdowns now. Bananarama and Madonna were not, at that point, pushing agendas. They were looking sexy.