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I look at pictures of high schoolers from the 50's, and they look like old people to me. Maybe women's hairstyles were all short back then and this is the main reason why. It's sad how little in common their generation has with the young people of today. I think the teens of today will never really get old, and the baby boomers were the generation that thought they were the first "cool" generation, but now a lot of them seem old anyway.
I think it is a combination of outdated styles and improvements in photographic lighting throughout the years. We don't know how to attribute it, so we simply assume they look "older." In reality, it's just that they're different. I even notice that with looking at my peers in high school during the late 1990s. They didn't look old to me then, and current pictures don't suggest they look old to me now - but if I look at their pictures in high school, they look "older" than today's teenagers, at least a little bit. I think styles are fairly similar today to what they were starting in the late 1990s, though, so most people under 35 didn't look that much different in high school than they do today.
Also, it isn't really related to the clothes people wear. Even today, in professional photographs, teenagers dress formally, and you'll still notice them looking "younger."
I just thought of another thing: in the 50s most girls were not allowed to wear makeup. Most grown women didn't even wear much makeup except powder, lipstick and rouge. Girls usually didn't color their hair either--make up and hair coloring were marks of a tramp, someone trying to attract sexual attention. And we all know sex didn't exist in the 50s. LOL
Ou, don't even get me started on hair coloring. That along with tattoos, is about the worst thing that has happened to beauty in the last 50 years. Make up, I don't thing is too out of control now days. I'm surprised by how many young women I see wearing little or no makeup.
Our culture is trash now. I was looking through my mother's high school album. She went to Minneapolis Washburn HS and graduated in 1941. All the men wore black suits and ties with white shirts. The girls all wore dresses.
These were kids who lived through the depression. My Mom used to talk about eating lard sandwiches for lunch at school because it's all they could afford. But they took the time to dress up and act properly in public.
Washburn HS is a dump now. Covered in gang symbols and they lose many kids a year to violence. And they claim it's because of economic problems. BS, look at it when people were REALLY poor, in other words didn't even have enough to eat.
I look at pictures of high schoolers from the 50's, and they look like old people to me. Maybe women's hairstyles were all short back then and this is the main reason why. It's sad how little in common their generation has with the young people of today. I think the teens of today will never really get old, and the baby boomers were the generation that thought they were the first "cool" generation, but now a lot of them seem old anyway.
Today's culture worships at the altar of youth. In decades past, people sought maturity because with maturity came respect. In other words, young people wanted to appear older and more mature so that they could be taken seriously and get a better job. In today's environment wisdom and experience is not valued. Today it's all about being cool and hip and trendy, so people try to appear younger than they really are, even when it is ridiculous (i.e. Joan Rivers, Dolly Parton, Wayne Newton, etc).
You know, I kinda believe it. And it's not just the 50s. I've been watching All in the Family re-runs from the '70s. When the show first aired in '71, Archie was supposed to be about 47 years old, as was the actor who portrayed him. But he easily looks in his late 50's if not 60's. Even Meathead and Gloria appear to me to be in their early-mid 30's, even though they were actually in their mid 20's at the time. So I do think the clock is slowing down somewhat.
I look at pictures of high schoolers from the 50's, and they look like old people to me. Maybe women's hairstyles were all short back then and this is the main reason why. It's sad how little in common their generation has with the young people of today. I think the teens of today will never really get old, and the baby boomers were the generation that thought they were the first "cool" generation, but now a lot of them seem old anyway.
They had to grow up quick and take responsibility. Couldn't be perma-children. The teens of today will look ridiculous with all their tattoos and wood chips in their ears, lips, and noses.
I think it was clothes and hairstyles copied from their parents, even in the early 60s I found it hard to get dresses that my aunt or mother wouldnt wear and was over the moon when the mini came out. and mad backcombed hairdos. it let us stand apart from older women...
Fashion trends and genetics as well as some people always look older than, younger than, or their actual age.
Take a gander at Richard Jaeckel and Robert Wagner. They both looked like boys into their early 20s. They don't look any different than young men of today. If you happen to catch Jaeckle in "Guadalcanal Diary," he looks much younger than his actual age. Appearing equally younger than his actual age, Robert Wagner in "Halls of Montezuma" looks like a kid.
All it takes is finding men and women that have boyish or girlish faces, tracking down some young photos, and it's easy to see that young people looked young back in the day too.
Last edited by bolillo_loco; 03-21-2013 at 12:05 PM..
Reason: No Rhodes scholar here
And kids DID get a LOT more exercise back then, than they do now. It was called playing and acting your age (at least when you were in elementary school).
The idea for kids that age was to look older, not have the permanent adolescence we have today.
People didn't take good care of themselves. People smoked, ate badly, and didn't get much exercise.
Most the photos were in black and white.
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