I was there, Gandalf, in the Reagan Administration

[resonant]

Additional notes to young writers who saw Cobra Kai and got sucked into Karate Kid and are now trying to set stories in the foreign country that is 1985:

- The shorts were that short. It was normal. Men were allowed to have thighs in the '80s.

- The hair was that clean and shiny. It was normal. On TV even scary criminal types all looked like their hairdryers were still warm.

- "Thirsty" and "the D" didn't have any slang meaning then, and they wouldn't have made anybody laugh.

- Wikipedia says the phrase "safe sex" was being used as early as '84, but it wasn't really mainstream; condoms were generally thought of as birth control. Most of them were unlubricated and really, really dry. They'd suck all the moisture out of your Parts. I was 21 in 1985 and was unaware of the whole concept of lube, though I was familiar with spermicidal gel.

- No internet meant that it was difficult and embarrassing to get hold of porn, so a lot of people had just never seen any. No internet also meant teens went around believing some things about sex that were really spectacularly wrong.

- Spandex wasn't common except in leotards. Jeans had no stretch, zero. So they were loose enough in the leg that when you unfastened them, they pretty much just fell to the ground.

- Earphones were little sponge-covered things the size of Oreos strung on a length-adjustable arc of metal. They neither went into the ear nor fully covered the ear. They really didn't block outside sound at all unless you had the music turned up as high as it would go.

- You can go right on imagining these guys in boxer-briefs if you like, but I promise you they were wearing white Jockeys.

Edited to add a link to feklar42's addition on the subject of consent and date rape, which is an area where attitudes were very different in 1985.

Comments

[goss]

Earphones were little sponge-covered things the size of Oreos strung on a length-adjustable arc of metal. They neither went into the ear nor fully covered the ear.

Oh! Haha. I have actually been trying to source one of these, which I remember using in high school. Despite the not-so-great quality sound, I really liked how they never hurt my ears and didn't get in the way of my glasses. I didn't realise it's now a fossil of technology - no wonder I can't find them to buy. *facepalm*

[resonant]

The spongy stuff degraded really fast, so it would probably be hard to find old ones in usable condition.

It just occurred to me how odd it is that an earphone jack is still the same shape that it was in the '80s. I'm surprised the market hasn't "fixed" that for us.

[goss]

Yeah, it's so weird that headphones nowadays either come in HUMONGOUS headgear form or stuff you have to jam directly inside your ear. There's no in-between. *baffled*

[mific]

The cheap ones on airplanes are kind of still like the old '80s ones? But crap quality of course. Apple has also fucked up headphones as you can't plug any in now and I can't use the bluetooth "in your ear" ones.

[goss]

The cheap ones on airplanes are kind of still like the old '80s ones?

Interesting!

Unfortunately for me though, all the airlines I tend to use (Caribbean-based) carry hard plastic, ear-bud style headphones, for about a decade now. /o\

[jesse_the_k]

My guy wears these because he uses hearing aids. He's had good luck finding them at very cheap places like the dollar store or the Goodwill/Sallyann/thrift store.

[cimorene]

There's actually a rare model for sports use only that has like a disc of some kind with a little plastic curvy earpiece that goes behind the ear to hold it on... but I think the disc which USED to be the foam kind has sort of shrunk a bit in more recent ones.

[desireearmfeldt]

I feel like there the giant over-ear headphones also existed in the mid-80s, but you certainly didn't wear them with your walkman or anything like that?

[resonant]

No, you wore them and they kept you tethered to the record player while you lay on the floor and listened to Talking Heads. If you were me, you had borrowed them from your dad and they smelled faintly of Old Spice.

[desireearmfeldt]

We had a record player but no one ever plugged headphones into it. (We did have speakers rigged up so that you could play records in one room and hear them in another.)

[azurelunatic]

The great big cornflower blue vinyl ones that went with the tape deck in school. And there was a board that let up to six people or so plug in headphones at once so you could all listen to the same taped lecture.

[jesse_the_k]

If you worked on audio production in any way, you did have access to what were lovingly called cans.

[sholio]

They still exist! I know because they're the only kind I can use - earbuds don't stay in, and the over-the-ear noise-cancelling ones hurt my ears (and also, I like to be able to hear what's going on around me). The best trick I know of for finding them is by looking for headphones meant for kids - "children's foam headphones" (and the like) will often turn them up on various online sites. Sony used to make a pretty durable one up until they appear to have discontinued it a couple of years ago, but you can still find refurbished and remainder ones by looking up "sony children's headphones" and similar. You can also get replacement foam covers for when the foam inevitably wears out; I have some packages of that too! I am riding this rowboat until it sinks, damn it.

[goss]

Thank you so much for the tip! I had no idea you could still source these. :) :)

[libitina]

I still use them!!! Because I can wear them while I'm working and still hear people who need my attention.

I usually buy them from a library supply company

But I've also bought them from Amazon

You can also get replacement foam

[goss]

Yay! Thank you for all the links! ^__^

[lemonsharks]

these guys? Apparently they're called "clip on earphones" now.

(I found a bluetooth version of the behind-the-neck headphones that came with my discman in 2003 which were the most comfortable audio listening device I have ever used )