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Things that you can’t quite believe were the norm

1000 replies

ItsNotAShopItsAStore · 09/06/2024 19:27

What’s one of those things you think in 10/20/30 years people will go “WTF why was that acceptable?”

For me - the Jeremy Kyle show. I’m so pleased it’s off air - awful poverty porn hosted by a nasty little bully and enabled by god-complex shit stirring producers. Also who wants to watch so much shouting and arguing at 9.25am!

OP posts:
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GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 10/06/2024 07:34

ShillyShallySherbet · 09/06/2024 19:42

If we’re thinking of the future and things that we won’t believe were acceptable that we do now, I hope giving children unsupervised access to the internet i.e. smartphones before the age of 16.

Ditto to that!

vdbfamily · 10/06/2024 07:36

CaptainOliviaBenson · 09/06/2024 20:16

Was this in the UK? Definitely wasn't a thing when I was in school in the 80s and 90s!

I was at secondary school in the UK in the 80's and we had communal showers after P.E. Just a large room with shower heads coming out of wall at intervals. It was so embarrassing.
My DH went to a progressive private school in the UK that had mixed naked swimming. He got his parents to write claiming he had a verruca most weeks but he was absolutely mortified. He jokes about learning to dive with one hand over his genetalia!

KarenOH · 10/06/2024 07:36

AmelieTaylor · 10/06/2024 07:31

@Ilovebees

add to that one of our PE teachers 'supervising' the showers was a lesbian.

no issue with her being lesbian (though it was in the 1980's, so still quite 'out there' but what were they thinking allowing her to supervise teen girls in the showers??? It was very uncomfortable.

What the actual fuck are you on about

is your brain still in 1981?

EnterFunnyNameHere · 10/06/2024 07:38

Notenoughdollarbucks · 09/06/2024 19:48

Boob jobs
hopefully in years to come it will viewed in the same way as Chinese foot binding.
my 12 year old daughter has suddenly understood what a boob job is. And she is utterly dumb founded that someone would cut their breast open and stuff it with plastic just to make men fancy them or look good. She is agog. She thought they were just for people who may have had a breast or both removed for medical reasons.
It’s given me a whole new perspective (and I very nearly had one 19 years ago) and have a number of friends who did too 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think your DDs take is bang on, but I'm not sure boob jobs are necessarily something that has had their day and gone. Just looking at the enormous prevalence of fillers/botox I think cosmetic procedures are if anything much more common than they used to be - I feel like all that used to be what the slebs were up to, now it's just normalised for all!

Notellinganyone · 10/06/2024 07:39

Georgyporky · 09/06/2024 19:37

Wearing nappies after age 2 ?
Sometimes the old ways are the best.

Why? Mine all wore them until three and were then dry in a matter of days. Saved a lot of hassle and it becoming an issue.

icelollycraving · 10/06/2024 07:42

I think about the risks I took walking him after going to the pub/club. I’d also happily get in a man’s car.
My mum used to get me to light her cigarettes off the gas cooker and I would occasionally have a secret puff 😳
Having to wear heels at work and a dress or skirt.
Smoking, at work/on a plane/ in bars.
In future, I wonder if the availability of extreme porn will implode and we will become more Victorian in our approach. I hope so.
I also think drag will be considered like blackface.

scalt · 10/06/2024 07:42

Wearing trainers without socks in summer: lots of people did in the 80s and 90s, but I think far more people wear invisible socks nowadays. (I'm old school, though: I go sockless in trainers in the summer.)

Re. the Jeremy Kyle show: in one of the Adrian Mole books, Pandora makes this comment when she is an MP: "I adore the show. I lets me keep in touch with the underclass, without having to visit their dreadful estates." The sort of thing that Johnson or Sunak would say out loud.

Certainly the Covid crap. The way they blatantly normalised it all with the phrase "new normal", and deliberately terrified the pants off the public, in their own words. Now we need to keep up the resistance to make sure it never happens again. People are slowly coming round to how they were terrorised by their own government. Partygate showed it for the nonsense that it was, and I have a nasty feeling that if Partygate hadn't happened, people would still be craving restrictions, and the government would still be dropping hints about future ones. (Was Partygate orchestrated, and poor ickle Boris used as the whipping boy, so that people don't crave future lockdowns, once somebody realised they were an economic disaster? It's government logic, it wouldn't surprise me.)

Also, related to this, I think there's now more public distrust of politicians and the media; until recently, many people trusted both implicitly. It can only be a good thing if this changes, and people become much more sceptical. Social media means that mainstream media is not the only source of information. Yes, that is a very mixed blessing, but anything which makes the public sceptical is a good thing as far as I am concerned. People don't seem excited about a possible Labour government now, unlike in 1997, when Tony Blair was promising total fairness and the moon on a stick, and people believed him. There's now a feeling of "we've seen it all before".

Combattingthemoaners · 10/06/2024 07:46

AmelieTaylor · 10/06/2024 07:31

@Ilovebees

add to that one of our PE teachers 'supervising' the showers was a lesbian.

no issue with her being lesbian (though it was in the 1980's, so still quite 'out there' but what were they thinking allowing her to supervise teen girls in the showers??? It was very uncomfortable.

Whilst I completely disagree with the way they forced young girls to shower. There is a difference between being gay and being a paedophile.

Isthisreasonable · 10/06/2024 07:47

namechangiosa · 09/06/2024 19:53

Very dangerous. Sounds fun though.

Kids used to fight to be in the boot. Laying your kids down to sleep in the car was standard in the 60s/70s/80s. Never heard of any children coming to harm as a result. My DM was paranoid about danger so would never have allowed us to travel like that if it was a known risk.

Intriguedbythis · 10/06/2024 07:56

Horsebox27 · 09/06/2024 23:40

In years to come I think we will be disgusted we have given 11 and 12 year olds access to literally the views and influence of every man woman and person on earth (the good and bad) via a device they can carry in their pocket.

I think more than that our children (or the ones we have given this access to) will rightly hold us to account and ask us why we wouldn’t let them play unsupervised for fear of stranger danger but thought it was accepted and “normal” to watch the worst of humanity on apps like TikT0k and IG.

they’ll also tell us how stupid we are to think parental controls are actually safeguarding in any shape or form.

it’s not normal and it’s not okay. Thankfully people are hopefully stopping the tsunami of childhood mental health trauma that results from this poor parenting decision to allow addictively designed devises into the hands of our precious children.

peace out.

This! Very well written and I agree with every word

AlpineMuesli · 10/06/2024 07:57

vdbfamily · 10/06/2024 07:36

I was at secondary school in the UK in the 80's and we had communal showers after P.E. Just a large room with shower heads coming out of wall at intervals. It was so embarrassing.
My DH went to a progressive private school in the UK that had mixed naked swimming. He got his parents to write claiming he had a verruca most weeks but he was absolutely mortified. He jokes about learning to dive with one hand over his genetalia!

Mixed NAKED swimming??

Was this a thing? Or was there a culture of grooming at the school?

ItsNotAShopItsAStore · 10/06/2024 07:58

Putting our children’s images and videos online.

I’ve said for a while now I think the kids of ‘parent influencers’ such as Lad Baby etc will one day file a class action suit over the fact their parents plastered their image and whereabouts all over the internet at an age they couldn’t consent. I think it’s awful, using your kids for clout.

OP posts:
WittiestUsernameEver · 10/06/2024 07:59

ItsNotAShopItsAStore · 10/06/2024 07:58

Putting our children’s images and videos online.

I’ve said for a while now I think the kids of ‘parent influencers’ such as Lad Baby etc will one day file a class action suit over the fact their parents plastered their image and whereabouts all over the internet at an age they couldn’t consent. I think it’s awful, using your kids for clout.

Yes, basically their kids are working and (probably) not being paid for the appearances!

ItsNotAShopItsAStore · 10/06/2024 08:00

WittiestUsernameEver · 10/06/2024 07:59

Yes, basically their kids are working and (probably) not being paid for the appearances!

That Ryan kid in the US was the big thing at one point, I always wonder if he owns the rights to the massive house they live in. He must be a teenager now!

OP posts:
SinnerBoy · 10/06/2024 08:00

WhatWouldJeevesDo · Today 05:35

°The trouble was he got the best lines. Funny and quotable racism isn’t very helpful - or so I’m told.^

He just spoke many people did then, but plenty of people were sick of it. He may have had "the best lines," but they all set him up to show him as an ignorant buffoon.

My grandad told me he was a very clever character, spot on, but not for the reason most people thought. He exposed racism and prejudice as being ridiculous.

Oblomov24 · 10/06/2024 08:00

Naked diving? Shock

BringMeSunshineAllDayLong · 10/06/2024 08:01

Martinii · 09/06/2024 21:28

Under 18s nights in nightclubs! We used to go (aged 14) dressed in short skirts, high platform shoes and little tops! White lighting before we went and I think it used to finish about 10.30pm and no one cared how anyone got home. You'd just walk with your friends half naked (coats were not cool) home.

We just used to go to the club, I first got served aged 13 and looked it!

WittiestUsernameEver · 10/06/2024 08:04

ItsNotAShopItsAStore · 10/06/2024 08:00

That Ryan kid in the US was the big thing at one point, I always wonder if he owns the rights to the massive house they live in. He must be a teenager now!

Yeah, he's lie 12 it 13 and has earned ten is millions, if not hundreds.

I do wonder if that's all his, or his family have taken some earnings too. Presumably they're paying themselves handsomely for their work in the channel.

WittiestUsernameEver · 10/06/2024 08:06

Isthisreasonable · 10/06/2024 07:47

Kids used to fight to be in the boot. Laying your kids down to sleep in the car was standard in the 60s/70s/80s. Never heard of any children coming to harm as a result. My DM was paranoid about danger so would never have allowed us to travel like that if it was a known risk.

Well, crack on and put your kids in the boot. I'm sure they'll be just fine in a car accident... After all, I've never known a single person to be in an accident that got hurt...

Intriguedbythis · 10/06/2024 08:07

crockofshite · 10/06/2024 06:19

Oh, . so the massacre of 6m Jews and other undesirables was okay then?

What the F are you talking about?
WHERE did they say that? Give your fucking head a wobble. They are pointing out the genocide we are seeing right now in front of our eyes. That doesn’t negate history and they’re not trying to! It also does NOT justify what’s happening now. FFS

Trixiefirecracker · 10/06/2024 08:07

AmelieTaylor · 10/06/2024 07:31

@Ilovebees

add to that one of our PE teachers 'supervising' the showers was a lesbian.

no issue with her being lesbian (though it was in the 1980's, so still quite 'out there' but what were they thinking allowing her to supervise teen girls in the showers??? It was very uncomfortable.

Sounds like you absolutely have a problem with her being a lesbian, being gay doesn’t mean she was predatory!

WittiestUsernameEver · 10/06/2024 08:07

scalt · 10/06/2024 07:42

Wearing trainers without socks in summer: lots of people did in the 80s and 90s, but I think far more people wear invisible socks nowadays. (I'm old school, though: I go sockless in trainers in the summer.)

Re. the Jeremy Kyle show: in one of the Adrian Mole books, Pandora makes this comment when she is an MP: "I adore the show. I lets me keep in touch with the underclass, without having to visit their dreadful estates." The sort of thing that Johnson or Sunak would say out loud.

Certainly the Covid crap. The way they blatantly normalised it all with the phrase "new normal", and deliberately terrified the pants off the public, in their own words. Now we need to keep up the resistance to make sure it never happens again. People are slowly coming round to how they were terrorised by their own government. Partygate showed it for the nonsense that it was, and I have a nasty feeling that if Partygate hadn't happened, people would still be craving restrictions, and the government would still be dropping hints about future ones. (Was Partygate orchestrated, and poor ickle Boris used as the whipping boy, so that people don't crave future lockdowns, once somebody realised they were an economic disaster? It's government logic, it wouldn't surprise me.)

Also, related to this, I think there's now more public distrust of politicians and the media; until recently, many people trusted both implicitly. It can only be a good thing if this changes, and people become much more sceptical. Social media means that mainstream media is not the only source of information. Yes, that is a very mixed blessing, but anything which makes the public sceptical is a good thing as far as I am concerned. People don't seem excited about a possible Labour government now, unlike in 1997, when Tony Blair was promising total fairness and the moon on a stick, and people believed him. There's now a feeling of "we've seen it all before".

No socks in trainers? Surely your insoles get absolutely demolished?

localnotail · 10/06/2024 08:08

Looking back: being asked at the interview if I have an intention of having children in the next few years; smoking everywhere - coming home from the night out smelling of fags (I never smoked); everyone's assumption that 14-16 year old girls having sex with older men are "promiscuous"

Things from our times that, hopefully, will be considered weird: ridiculous beauty standards, excessive plastic surgery (though I'm sceptical about this one, every decade seem to have some excesses). Police doing so little about cyber stalking and bullying. Incredible amount of scaremongering and unproven bullshit online with people accepting it as truth. Russia allowing to pummel Ukraine while everyone debates on how they cant afford to get involved.

ItsNotAShopItsAStore · 10/06/2024 08:10

Intriguedbythis · 10/06/2024 08:07

What the F are you talking about?
WHERE did they say that? Give your fucking head a wobble. They are pointing out the genocide we are seeing right now in front of our eyes. That doesn’t negate history and they’re not trying to! It also does NOT justify what’s happening now. FFS

That poster was (IMO, rightly) pointing out that another poster was talking like genocide is a new thing. And got very pissy when she mentioned the Holocaust. Which is…interesting

OP posts:
Intriguedbythis · 10/06/2024 08:10

WittiestUsernameEver · 10/06/2024 08:07

No socks in trainers? Surely your insoles get absolutely demolished?

No sock. ? Was this really a thing? People must have stunk 👃

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