Baffling s Trends Explained

5 Baffling 80s Trends Explained<br /><br />Every decade has its regrettable trends. But the further we get from the 80s, the clearer it becomes that it was . different. Sometimes you cant see the forest for the trees, and other times you cant see the forest for the clown mask youre wearing backward while masturbating in the woods at midnight. The 80s was one of those other times.<br /><br />At a certain point, future generations are going to come to us wondering what the hell happened, so wed better get our story straight. Fortunately, neurologists and sociologists have identified a number of rare and serious mental disorders that are going to come in handy when explaining just what the hell was wrong with everyone.<br /><br />Eighties fashion has become such a standard pop culture whipping post, its easy to overlook how weird it really was. The 50s through the end of the 70s represented a gradual unpuckering of American assholes, and literally let its hair down. When rock stars suddenly started wearing their hair like theyd had it blown out and styled for the prom, it wasnt just weird. It undid decades of progress in the field of not giving a shit.<br /><br />Black musicians also decided to take a 180 degree turn away from a decades strong tradition of getting cooler.<br /><br />Women took hair metal as a challenge, and entire species of low flying birds were never seen again.<br /><br />And it wasnt just the hair. A Google image search for the phrase 80s makeup reveals the decades beauty secret: Dont let them see what your face looks like.<br /><br />After decades of caring less, Americans were suddenly trying way too hard, and their goal appeared to be look like were all in the same terrible sci fi movie.<br /><br />The scientific explanation starts with the question posed by the Iraqi torturer in Three Kings: What is the problem with Michael Jackson? There are probably many answers to that question, but the one Ive always found most interesting is that Michael Jackson had no idea what he looked like.<br /><br />Michael Jackson, before and after the 80s.<br /><br />This isnt as rare as you might think. In his new book Incognito, David Eaglemen explains that our eyes are mostly used to take in information about things that are unfamiliar or changing if youre driving, your eyes see the traffic light go from red to green, but you already knew that. What you may not realize is that the 95 percent of your visual field that is the street you drive down every day to work is being filled in by your brain from memory.<br /><br />We do so much seeing with our memory that our visual cortex has 10 times as many nerves transmitting information from our brain as from our eyes. While this is useful when were trying to drive without plowing through an intersection, it also means that what we see is actually a blend of whats actually out there, and whatever weird shit we have echoing around in our head.<br /><br />This one also looks like my ex wife. How are you not seeing this?<br /><br />Thats how insecurities about body parts or facial features can actually show up when you look in the mirror. While Jackson suffered from an extreme form of this called body dysmorphic disorder, the system that causes it might explain some of the havoc 80s fashions wreaked on family photo albums. As the body dysmorphic disorder Wikipedia page notes, there are plenty of other types of body modification that do not include cosmetic surgery such as wearing extravagant clothing or excessive jewelry.<br /><br />The three most common areas that BDD sufferers distort are the hair, skin and nose. This makes sense in the context of Jackson, but it also helps explain some of the inexplicable 80s hair and makeup trends. There are even corresponding iconic 80s fashion tragedies for Michael Jacksons string of unnecessary nose jobs.<br /><br />What about those giant glasses that made everyones face look like it was being swallowed by a Venn diagram? Eye wear experts suggest people with large noses go with large, over sized frames to compensate.<br /><br />Plus, your face can now generate enough wind resistance to stop a car should the brakes fail.<br /><br />Its surprising more people didnt just start hiding their face behind the Groucho nose and glasses, like Humpty.<br /><br />Told he was funny looking, still got things cooking. Just saying, White Snake.<br /><br />4. Racism Anosognosia<br /><br />People tend not to associate the 80s with racism. The 70s had Archie Bunker insulting every race on the planet on network TV, and the Jeffersons were still in the process of moving on up. But at least the 70s were willing to ask questions about racism. The only question the 80s asked about racism was, Wait, you mean car racing? Because weve never heard of that other thing you asked about.<br /><br />Jim Crow? Is he the wacky neighbor on Mr. Belvedere?<br /><br />The 80s refused to show black people who werent extraordinarily wealthy the Huxtables, the kids from Diffrent Strokes and Webster, or werent actively overcoming their differences with white people Crockett and Tubbs, Riggs and Murtaugh. Eddie Murphy became one of the decades biggest movie stars by inventing the buddy cop movie in 48 Hours in which his buddy calls him a charcoal colored loser, and the N Word. Banter is fun! and a cop from inner city Detroit whose childhood friends are all white people. It wasnt until he was fully established that he was able to show audiences what life is really like for a black man in America who is secretly a wealthy African prince.<br /><br />When black characters werent making white people feel good about how well everyone was playing together, they had a tendency to mysteriously disappear. In Ghostbusters II, when the team have to face charges in court Winston takes an unexplained leave of absence. Showing a black guy in court was apparently too edgy, even if he was with three white guys, and the court in question was being attacked by the ghosts of mobsters.<br /><br />As usual, The Man gives the black guy a pass, and sticks it to the middle aged white guys.<br /><br />The only analogy we have weird enough to explain what happened to the issue of race in the 80s is a that prevents people from believing theyve suffered an injury or disability despite clear physical symptoms. These people arent lying when they claim their plainly paralyzed leg isnt paralyzed. They literally cant believe it. For instance, after Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas suffered a debilitating stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body, he refused to retire, and launched an embarrassing media campaign claiming he could kick field goals with his paralyzed leg.<br /><br />American pop culture couldnt ignore the racial divide any more than Justice Douglas could stop being paralyzed, movies just ended up acknowledging racism accidentally. For instance, in Teen Wolf, Scott Michael J. Fox finds out that hes a werewolf, and we find out that werewolves happen to embody nearly every single white stereotype of black people. After Scott turns into the wolf, hes not just good at basketball, he plays like a Harlem Globe Trotter, dribbling the ball between his legs, spinning it on his finger and pointlessly looping the ball behind his back before dunking. Traditional werewolf traits like grave robbing and howling at full moons are replaced with traits like spontaneous break dancing, calling classmates my man and starting a dance craze called The Wolf that can best be described as what white people look like when trying to do the dance from Thriller.