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A Dying Breed During a Terribly Sad Time

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Jonesy

New in Town
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4
I've come to an understanding. And this is not aimed at anyone special... It's a general conclusion I've reached. But if you feel it's aimed towards you in particular, grow up! You're not that special. haha!

I feel that at this time, my generation really is more obsessed with sex, drugs, and drinking more than people ever were in the 60's. I'm starting to think that it's not possible to find someone who hasn't slept with a hundred different people, who gets hammered everynight, or who gets stoned every chance they can. To me, that's really sad!

It seems that women will do or say just about anything to get some attention! When we first meet, I don't need to know how many guys you've slept with, or what you've had tattooed, or whatever else... Especially when we first meet. It makes me sad to see girls in clubs, completely drunk and hanging all over guys like a piece of meat. It doesn't impress me if you can drink a guy under the table! That's not the way a lady acts!

There was a time when men were men and women were women. Today, it seems that the gene pool got seriously messed up, and the difference between the two genders is sometimes confused. Men seem to be wearing womens clothing, because they like it. There seem to be more women dating women than women dating men...or both! Most men have certainty forgotten how to treat a woman. And it's very sad to hear the words in which a woman is referred to nowadays! It's just the way it is!

And then the feminist movement is great and all, but for gods sakes ladies, it's alright to let a man take care of you. That's our job! If you're cold and he offers you a jacket, you can take it. If a man wants to buy you dinner, let him. And on the flip side of that, jesus guys! If your girl is cold, offer her your jacket. And when you go out, you pay! That's the way it works.

But most of all, women just aren't women like they used to be. They used to be goddesses. Women like Grace Kelly, Tippi Hendren, Faye Dunaway... And men certainty aren't men like they used to be. Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman...They had style! They had class! They had dignity! They had self respect! And that's something that is very hard to find nowadays!

Allow me to prove my point!
<img src=http://www.reddotfilmstudios.com/models.gif>

For gods sakes, there were gay men in the 50's that looked straighter than many straight men today!

It saddens me to think of how sad a large percentage of my generation is! But what saddens me ever more, is when I think of our next generation. If this generation has been raised so poorly, the next has no chance!

It's sad what people have allowed kids to hear, in movies, on tv, and in music!

It's really sad to think that George Carlins list of words you can't say, have basically become part of our everyday language! And that that sort of language and behavior has become "alright" in our culture.

It's sad to think that we live in a world where more money is spent every year on Breast Enlargements and Viagra Research, than on Alzheimers Research!

It's a sad time, with NO sign of change, and we only have ourselves to blame!
 

Briscoeteque

One of the Regulars
Messages
224
Location
Lewiston, Maine
Well, thanks for telling me my generation (I'm 19) has no hope. I think we've got alot more going for us than meets the eye. Sure, style and class have been thrown out the window, but I have nothing but confidence for the future. Every generation has been more tastless then the last, and the world still goes on. It's sad that everyone has lost alot of respect, but things are far from hopless and good people are still there.

And I'm in college, I know many people who don't recklessly have passionless sex, or drink every day, or even at all, and fewer still who get stoned on a regular basis. No, I'm of the opinion that while things are tastless now, they definately have been far worse, and I'm looking at you, 1970's. Good lord, what were you thinking?

Plus, to a degree, there's so much more acceptence. I was trying to imagine today how awkword it would be in about the 1930's to dress Victorian, and how truly old-fashioned people like HP Lovecraft were treated even back then. I'm so impressed with the lack of flack I get for never being tieless in public, especially from a population that has been forced to wear ties for so long.
 

feltfan

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,190
Location
Oakland, CA, USA
The old tradition...

...of lamenting today's youth.

Over the last couple of weeks, while walking the dog,
I have been listening to Graves' "I, Claudius" (written
in 1934). In it, one can enjoy Romans kvetching about
today's youth. If "Yesterday's Role Models" include
Bonnie and Clyde, how different is that from today's gangsta?

Really it's not that difficult to find pictures of today's
stars dressed nicely. Just plug George
Clooney, Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Morgan Freeman,
or the celeb of your choice into Google Image search.

Hopefully we can use a more meaningful yardstick in
assessing generations. Last night I watched a bit of
a documentary on San Francisco in the 1920s. There
was a discussion of the extraordinary prejudice faced by
Asians and blacks in the area. If today's youth aren't
burning down Chinatown or lynching people, hey, we're
making progress over the Golden Age.

But their hats do suck.
 

Naama

Practically Family
Messages
667
Location
Vienna
Well, saturday I went out with friends to a club (an "alternative" place)and was just thinking quite the same. There was a group of kids (I bet they weren't older than 15), all drunk, the girls had their pants as low as possible and their tops as high abouve as possible, the guys actet as if they would own the place, the girls actet as if they would be the guys b..... Well, I guess you know what that mean. When I think back what I was like when I was 15......, theres a great difference. I somehow feel really oldfashioned, sometimes even old (I'm 21). It's actually not really easy to find people I can really connect with, but I also think that today there are a lot more advantages. People have more freedom, people can choose how to live, how to dress and if they feel like behaving in a horrible, tastless way, than they can do it. Some will grow up and know how stupid they have been, some will grow up and know nothing, but that's just the way it goes. And by the way, there are also people out there who are different ;)

Naama
 

shindeco

A-List Customer
Messages
377
Location
Vancouver (the one north of M.K.)
People in the 30s and 40s complained CONSTANTLY about the moral degeneration of the younger generation: they behaved badly, they dressed badly (many people considered two-tone shoes to be in very poor taste!) It is only with the passage of time that it has acquired an air of respectability.


Jonesy said:
For gods sakes, there were gay men in the 50's that looked straighter than many straight men today!

As a gay man, I strongly resent the implication that looking "gay" (whatever that may mean to you) is somehow a bad, negative or undesirable thing!
 

Bebop

Practically Family
Messages
951
Location
Sausalito, California
I don't think women were ever goddesses. Their publisist just made them look that way. There have always been women that get drunk, hang all over men, go to bed with everyone, cuss, spit and behave badly. There are plenty of stories of yesterdays stars proving to be less than the "goddesses" they were thought to be. Katherine Hepburn had a long affair with Spencer Tracy while Tracy was still married, if I remember correctly. That is not new to this generation. Style is still there. Not the style of Steve McQueen or Cary Grant but there is still style. As crappy as you may think it is, it is the style of this generation. To quote John Lennon, "Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans." Years from now we may see todays style more clearly than we do today. Steve McQueen was well known as a physically abusive mate and I am not quite sure that is what you want in a "real man". Idolizing yesterdays stars does not make them better than todays idiotic stars.
Rock Hudson was "SuperHomosexual!" and we never knew until the tragic end. Now, we get hit in the face by everyones sexual preferences before we even ask. I don't want to know who in Hollywood is straight or gay. Just entertain me and leave the sex in your bedroom.
 

jake_fink

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,279
Location
Taranna
I was going to ask about Bonnie and Clyde as role models, but feltfan beat me to it.

Anyway, I was a very nasty, angry, tatooed hooligan when I was young (and I did often wear a hat), and now I'm a nice, professorial, suit-wearing family man and homeowner. In short, I have become my dad. So, all is not lost. Or.... all is lost. It's a relative thing.
 

Michaelson

One Too Many
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1,840
Location
Tennessee
Briscoeteque said:
No, I'm of the opinion that while things are tastless now, they definately have been far worse, and I'm looking at you, 1970's. Good lord, what were you thinking?

.

Interesting statement. Considering your age, it's apparent you have your information from the media about the 'tasteless' 70's. What you DON'T know is that the vast majority of us were NOT buying that junk, but WERE stuck with the material that was on the market. White appliances were special order, and cost 20% more than the 'on the floor' avacato green/harvest gold appliances. You couldn't find a cotton shirt without paying a premium. Polyester was the 'word', and that's what was on the shelves. Shag carpet was a pain in the rear to clean, but standard carpet was almost double in cost, as it wasn't what was being produced in bulk for the commercial building and residential contractors who WERE installing that stuff, as it helped boost THEIR bottomline.
What you see about the 70's is how things were as seen by the media, and those stories were shot in the metropolitan centers of the U.S. If they had taken time to come out in the hinderlands where 90% of us lived, they would have been hard pressed to find anything that you see on the tv about 'that era'.

I agree, the stereotyped history of the 70's supports your thesis, but the reality of that period of time is a lot further from the truth than you realize.

The same can be said of the 60's, and in my hometown, the 50's were just an extension of the 30's and 40's, but I digress....;)

Regards! Michaelson
 

jake_fink

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,279
Location
Taranna
I just noticed how much Quentin Tarnatino looks like he could be the model for Wayalnd Flowers' puppet, Madame.

wayland6v.jpg


Madame Tarnatino is the one in the middle.
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
photobyalan said:
Jonesy,

Welcome to the Lounge!

That's the way to swat at the hornets' nest, and on your very first post. Oustanding!:cheers1:
If you're gonna swat, swat big! :D

I see little value in the griping about how much better things were in the 'old days'. Every generation complains about the last one. I think it reflects more on our sense of feeling outdated than it does an accurate examination of the youth. Every generation has its good and bad.
If things truly got progressively worse with each generation, wouldn't we have just..exploded as a society by now?
 

Section10

One of the Regulars
Hahahahaha

jake_fink said:
Anyway, I was a very nasty, angry, tatooed hooligan when I was young (and I did often wear a hat), and now I'm a nice, professorial, suit-wearing family man and homeowner. In short, I have become my dad. So, all is not lost. Or.... all is lost. It's a relative thing.

Great post! :cheers1:

All in all, I tend to agree that a deterioraton has taken place. It's not so odd that such poor role models are being chosen, but the fact that they are even considered as role models in the first place is much more provocative to me. What kind of criteria is being used in the process and why?
 

Twitch

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,133
Location
City of the Angels
Well Jonesey, your lament sounds precisely like the one we had in the 60s,70s and halfway through the 80s probably. It's all kinda relative. during the Roaring 20s I'm certain people had the same take on things.
 

Briscoeteque

One of the Regulars
Messages
224
Location
Lewiston, Maine
Michaelson[/QUOTE said:
Well, this makes a great deal of sense, I don't accuse everyone individually of awful taste, but like you said, it was a time period when bad taste muscled in completely. I watch old TV all of the time, and although I love some shows like Columbo, I cannot help but flinch at the almost comically bad styles. Columbo in retrospect is the best dressed of all of them. Given the choice at gunpoint, I will choose what is in vouge today, or pretty much any period that isn't that style.

I rather like the early 60's styles myself, while the beginnings of the modern gaudiness were there, most of it seems to be a slick simple elegant feel. In fact, I usually wear late 50's-early 60's clothes because they highlight my skinniness and practically all of my ties are two inches or less wide.
 

Marty M.

Vendor
Messages
1,195
Location
Minneapolis
Gay or Straight, who cares.

shindeco said:
As a gay man, I strongly resent the implication that looking "gay" (whatever that may mean to you) is somehow a bad, negative or undesirable thing!

Shindeco, Although I agree with your statement, I think what Jonesy should have said (and maybe was trying to say) is that some men look much more feminine then most women. We've seen it taken to extreems. Such as Boy George, Marilyn Manson and others. You can't pick up a men's fashion magazine and not see some waif looking guy that either of my young daughters could beat up. Not that I would want them to. And I'm not saying that these guy's are gay. They probably are not.
I do think that the media types think that we want to see overly feminine guy's. Maybe they should take a strawpole. I think that most of us would rather see men looking like men (Weather they're gay or straight, who cares).

Marty
 
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