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resonantAdditional 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 tofeklar42's addition on the subject of consent and date rape, which is an area where attitudes were very different in 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.
Concepts of Consent and Date Rape
Date: 6/14/21 04:15 pm (UTC)I think the concept of date rape started to be more common in my college years, but was still kind of discussed in whispers.
Re: Concepts of Consent and Date Rape
Date: 6/14/21 06:42 pm (UTC)Re: Concepts of Consent and Date Rape
Date: 6/14/21 10:33 pm (UTC)I think that's what makes it really interesting watching our favorite 80s movies. Yes, the racism in Sixteen Candles is bad, but the sexual assault isn't much better...
Re: Concepts of Consent and Date Rape
Date: 6/16/21 10:53 pm (UTC)Re: Concepts of Consent and Date Rape
Date: 6/15/21 07:46 am (UTC)Re: Concepts of Consent and Date Rape
Date: 6/15/21 03:43 pm (UTC)Re: Concepts of Consent and Date Rape
Date: 6/15/21 06:07 pm (UTC)