Toxic 90s nostalgia

[Lowrolller]

Is anyone else finding articles like this one https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/03/bridget-jones-is-a-welcome-reminder-of-a-much-more-comfortable-era a bit too much?
I also experienced this era, a simlar number of years into life as the author, but I always feel marginalised when I read them. I didn't have this easygoing yet perfect job, or boyfriiends that know cabinet ministers, or a job situation that allows you to continually mess up and drink as much as you like while still having enough to be financially secure. I agree life is evern tougher right now, but its like its saying to anyone alive then - this was your one socially sanctioned window for happiness, there's no point trying to be happy now, its all doom and decline, all the time ramming their perfect Richard Curtis film 90s down the throat of anyone who wasn't in such control of their circumstances.

I had a mobile phone the late 90s.
I don't think we have sexual equality, some things are more equal but others haven't progressed or regressed.
Minimum wage has increased but overall wages have stagnated for years and housing costs to wages are very out of kilter.
Agreed re homophobia but with Brexit, rise of the far right etc I'm not convinced re racism.

I had the most fun in the 00s in my 20s but I think the 90s were a time of excitement, hope, the whole cool Britannia. I don't see the same optimism in teenagers today.

The problem in the workplace that women are the ones that gave birth and go through the menopause and the hormonal and physical turmoil that comes from both those things hasn't yet been solved.

I'm pleased we are finally addressing euthanasia, but that could be taken the wrong way!

We should address it but I think we are only doing so now due to ageing population and the fact the country is broke. Not great motivations in my eyes!

I honestly feel that men these days are more aware of their impact on women and grooming is frowned upon. It obviously doesn't mean it has gone away and misogyny is arguably more prevalent (with the internet making it so) we have better laws around rape in marriage, coercive control and a better understanding of domestic abuse, for example.

Some things have definitely improved but I don't think other things have and then there are new things.

I'm more bothered by the use of the word toxic for everything we don't relate to or like.
Everything is toxic these days.

These type of articles annoy me. It's just mindless lazy journalism. As if one fictional character defined a generation. I have absolutely nothing in common with Bridget Jones despite being of her generation and background. Her friends were nothing like mine, her decisions are not the ones i would make, there was nothing about her life that makes me think oh that was me in the 90s.

I agree this type of constant negativity about the time we live in doesn't achieve anything. Each generation needs to be proud of itself and own it. Perhaps we shouldnt be so critical of young people today. Ironically the thing I miss most about the 90s is the sense of optimism. I don't remember everyone moaning about how much better life used to be, people looked forward with enthusiasm.

Brittany Spears, what a trend setter, eh?

Same! For me they were the most brilliant decade and I am unashamedly nostalgic for them but I was also a pre/mid teen for the duration of them. No doubt if I'd been older and had experienced it as an adult with some of the harsher sides that ever decade has I might think differently on them.

There are quite a few threads being started lately knocking the 90s and the nostalgia for them (and I'm not saying for a second that they were perfect) which is a shame as there is nothing wrong with thinking fondly of the decade you grew up in (provided it doesn't become all consuming) and to be honest the thought of being expected to live the rest of days only looking forward as though on a treadmill feels a bit bleak, as I shamelessly pump up the volume on freed from desire!

When I saw "One Day" on Netflix it brought back a lot of nostalgia but as pp have said, some things weren't as good as they are now. I also don't relate to BJ even now! I thought she was funny but she's definitely not me. Although I wanted to marry Mark Darcy, of course.

@AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta agree & the 90s weren't all bliss for me. My dad lost his job in the recession and we struggled for money.

and to be honest the thought of being expected to live the rest of days only looking forward as though on a treadmill feels a bit bleak

I think this is the problem at the moment!

Yep. But I think as long as the
nostalgia-aholics aren't taking it this far then it's okay. I mean I love them, but VHS instead of Netflix 😯.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jan/14/experience-i-live-in-the-1990s.

I agree, every decade has its good points and it’s bad points. I was a child in the 1960’s, teenager in the 1970’s, student and then homeowner/ career in the 1980’s. Survived and thrived throughout because I had the bedrock of coming from a cash poor but love, encouragement, and aspirational household. I was a determined, hardworking, health conscious individual who had a life plan mapped out, seized my opportunities, made others work, ditched a nice but going nowhere boyfriend, and married the man of my dreams. I was a maverick as well, not in my personality to “follow” or by “influenced “ by others. That’s another aspect of todays society, too many are like sheep latching onto this trend or that trend, that look or this look, that fad or this fad. It’s no wonder children and teenagers are struggling in some instance. 🤷‍♀️

Well there's a reason why there's not really the same nostalgia for trainspotting. People want cosy, not grim.

Bridget Jones can get in the bin - however, I loved the 90's....

It's a light (very light) comedy with no pretensions to being serious drama.

Just fiction and not a particularly believable one either.

YABU

I guess I do not overanalysed everything but felt much happier with my life then. Feel sorry for the shit music these days and the pressure on teens to live a much rather fake lifestyle. I wasn’t working class or anything that prevented me to have opportunities but that can happen in every era. I did however found my own way as my mother was hopeless even thought the money was there. I do not want to be rude but find that people from the U.K. had a lot more than families like our cleaner that came in the nineties and did much better than any working class person I know. Part of it I feel is precisely that people born working class feel robbed and hopeless in going ahead and blame the richer people. Well, let’s said that the cleaner I know has a few properties now and her kids were educated at university level with perfectly good opportunities. Not handed in a silver plate but the opportunities were there if you wanted to. Also, know a now famous artist that started serving teas and drinks on meetings before given the opportunity as he saw this as a foot in. The difference again he saw opportunities in this country that didn’t exist back home. Perspective is needed and the wanting to better yourself.

I guess your mindset is what I would considered toxic not the 90”s.

I had a great time in the 90s. 18 in 1992. For me it was a time of hope, everything was possible, and it came crashing down with 9/11. It was like some innocence died.

I see the 90s as the start, in some areas at least, of the problems we have today (although of course they "started" earlier, it's just my adolescence was then!).

Blair's government started cutting and privatising the welfare system, leaving disabled people in particular terrified of Atos. Single parent benefits were cut – J.K. Rowling benefited from years on benefits in which to sit in a cafe and write, but that was taken away from single parents a little later.

Lad culture and "girl power" made it distressing as a young feminist going to a university where female students were made to feel unwelcome.

I do remember it feeling more prosperous and generally much nicer than the 80s, though.

No fake eyelashes or contour required in the 90s. Not that I know how to do either now but I do feel slightly like I should...

Well, that would have been hard to deal with in any decade surely?

That's very much how I see it. Maybe it's just the age I was back then but I tend to separate life into pre and post 9/11 the former feeling like a much freer and more innocent time that then disappeared almost overnight.

It's all less hard to deal with if you have a decent social safety net.

I think some things have imprived – e.g. bereavement support would have been better in the last decade than it was in the 90s where I live.

I've got a real thing for 70s interior design, but reverting to 70s tech is a step too far.