Why did teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s look so old? (1990s, compare)
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Gun control was way back on the national agenda, and you could buy an AR-15 assault rifle at Montgomery Ward. Of course, mass shootings simply weren't a known phenomenon back then and certainly not at schools. I'm not sure how or why that changed over the years,
Don't forget about the mass shooter, who killed 13 and wounded many more, from the Texas University tower in 1966.
I saw this movie from 1975 called "Smile", about a small town teen beauty pageant. The girls looked their ages, but compared to today's standards, I wouldn't consider them beauty pageant material. By today's standards, most of them would be considered average and some Plain Janes.
As to the 1970's being more conservative than today, I would certainly agree. Obviously there was the era of "free love", drugs and all that. By and large, gays were still firmly in the closet and to mention gay marriage would have brought you some strange looks. Abortion was, at the time, a controversial topic. There was an episode of the old sitcom "Maude" (with Bea Arthur) in which Maude gets an abortion. Before the show was televised, a disclaimer came on the screen advising people that the topic was abortion and they might want to refrain from watching it.
Gun control was way back on the national agenda, and you could buy an AR-15 assault rifle at Montgomery Ward. Of course, mass shootings simply weren't a known phenomenon back then and certainly not at schools. I'm not sure how or why that changed over the years,
Back then, some of today's issues weren't even, well, issues. Islamic terrorism, the illegal immigration debate, global warming (Hell, they though another Ice Age was on the way), AIDS, crack cocaine and meth, Afghanistan/Iraq (although we'd just left Vietnam), and others. Political correctness had yet to make an appearance, at least in any meaningful way.
I tell ya, nothing's been the same since David Lee Roth left Van Halen
Issues in the 1970s were no less issues than they are today. The specifics of them have just changed. And the way that society treats them has changed. I remember in middle school (late 1960s) a classmate of mine committed suicide on the school grounds (not during school). We knew it had happened. We didn't know why (I still don't know why). There were no grief counselors. It wasn't brought up in school. We went on with our lives.
I'm considered a Boomer I guess but I feel more like a Soundgarden person than a Beatles person.
There is so much overgeneralization. My group didn't like hippies. We were more punk, but Straight Edge punk-meaning no violence and no drugs.
We didn't identify with the tune in, turn on, drop out thing, or whatever it was.
Nether did most of the late-born Boomers, having been just children through most of that. On the other hand, Soundgarden isn't really my thing either. I'm more classic rock.
I think kids looked less weathered back in the 70's. Look at prom pics or the high school graduating class of various schools these days and you'd think most were middle aged. At least that's what I see in the areas I've lived.
I do too -- but for the most part, I really don't see the difference. They wore "old" hairstyles back then, styles associated still with older people and you don't see them on many 16 year olds today.
Id say the 50s hairdos on girls looked older just like their mothers, with perms and pincurls, but the 60s and 70s I wouldnt say so at all... the 80s clothes for women were horrible though..
Another thing about teens from the 70s looking older:
You may be watching too many "Welcome Back, Kotter" reruns. Damn, those sweathogs looked old for teens.
Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk What ought to seem weird is college students not trying to look like (or act like) adults.
"Trying to look like" is what I said.
Back in the 1970s, an 18 or 19 year old whether in college or not was entering the adult world and trying to look like he or she belonged. For most of us, there was no question of leaving our parents' houses after high school, either for a job, for the military, or for college. Life as children was done.
"Here's your suitcase, son. We love you. Be sure to visit on holidays."
All college students are quite quick to call themselves adults. I haven't met one who says, "I'm not grown, I'm just a kid." So it's strange that they would not try to look like what they claim to be.
I really think that varied a lot, regionally. On the West Coast, and especially in the hippy and counter-culture centers in California (especially Berkeley, San Francisco, lots of photos available of that era), very few had any interest in trying to look like they belonged to the adult world. The fact that they didn't live in their parents' house is irrelevant. Many people lived in communal households with their friends, some were able to get jobs, others didn't have steady 8 hr/day jobs due in part to the difficult economic times, but in liberal areas, no one was required to "look like an adult". Men could get jobs even though they had very long hair. Women at 21 or 22 still looked like kids. There's no way to dress up a baby face and make it look matronly. It takes time for bodies and facial features to mature. The late 60's and 70's, and into the 80's, were famously characterized by a "youth culture". Few people (again, this probably varies regionally, but this is typical of the West Coast) had any interest in making themselves look older than they actually were.
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