Why did teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s look so old? (events, historical)
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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
If you think they look old in the '80s try looking at yearbooks from the '50s and before. With responsibilities people get mature in mind, which back in those days meant you looked more formal--at least by today's standards.
I think that's true. As for actually aging - heck, I was a teen in the late 1970s-early 1980s and I looked a lot younger than my actual age, couldn't grow any facial hair until I was well into college. Fortunately looking younger helps me in my appearance in middle age now!
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I'm half-tempted to post the photo from my high school graduation party, held just before my 18th birthday. I look about 13 in it. This was in 1982.
I'm in high school now and I've looked at yearbooks of my school from various decades as well as my parents yearbooks and the teenagers looked extremely old. My parents both went to school in the 70s and they certainly didn't look like me at 16. I look at the faces of the teenagers in the yearbooks and they could easily pass for a 40 year old even 50 year old if they look really old (which a lot do). Every other guy had a mustache and a lot even had beards and the girls looked like middle aged women. I know they had different hairstyles and wore different clothes them but they just had faces that didn't look youthful at all. Teenagers now look so much younger than teenagers of any other generation. I noticed that teenagers now are much shorter and look much younger. I'd say a lot of teens now could pass for 10-12 year olds. It's quite strange how teens didn't start looking young until about the mid 90s. Does anyone have a logical explanation for all of this?
Many times, members of a generation never see a reason to update their makeup or hairstyle, so your mom MAY actually look the same now as she did in her yearbook -- therefore, she looks old in the yearbook! Same with other generations -- it looked good when they were 17, so if they keep doing the same thing, maybe they'll keep looking 17 . . .
I remember what I wore in 1978 (I'm a little younger). Imagine all the poor polyesters who died to make those clothes!
They're still dying, except we're using microfiber polyesters now, an unprotected species.
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