Is it just me, or has the western world gone into a time warp back to the 50s?I am gathering the evidence (and it's coming thick and fast):
- there's a baby boom going on
- there's more expectation to be picture-perfect -- hair, body, clothes, accessories, house, garden, car, etc.
- there's more expectation to get it ALL right: for women to keep the perfect house, be the perfect mother, and also do perfectly well at a job; for men to provide the perfect income to maintain this perfect lifestyle, and also be a perfect father; and even kids don't escape -- they have to scrub up perfectly in designer duds, sit patiently through genius-stimulating extra-curricular activities, and do perfectly well at their perfectly-performing private school.
What the hell is going on?? What happened to dagging around and having a good time, not worrying much about what you're wearing, just having fun with family and friends, like we used to in the 80s and even 90s?
Am I the only one who has noticed this weird s**t escalating at a seemingly exponential rate? Am I looking through the wrong end of the telescope (or kaleidoscope)?
Why do I sound like a whingey old woman at the tender age of 32?
Images from Retro Planet .
8 comments:
Great post - there is so much pressure to be 'perfect' in every aspect of our lives at the moment. It's just so, well boring really. Here's do dagging around and having fun!! (My Big D had to explain 'poverty' to his (ok our)12 yr old neice the other day - she goes to a really exculusive girls school in Sydney - what are they teaching them? Obviously NOT empathy or understanding.
This is so strange, I did a post last week with a picture of my mother in her twenties. I wondered why women used to look so stylish all the time back in the fifties, and I never seem to manage to get it all right... Maybe that's because I was a teenager in the seventies, and everything looked shabby then?
But I agree completely, this "perfect" and regulated world we live in now, is boring and a bit frightening. I think it must be hard to grow up now, you have to be good at everything and look great.
yes, yes, yes, yes and YES - OMG you've hit the nail on the head............LOVE it and I agree - so sick to DEATH of the expectation of perfection, especially for us women and mothers!!
you've made my day!
Thanks
jxx
Absolutely - a very wise soul made a little speech at Brown Owls last Monday & she said "embrace the wonk". I like it.
I totally agree! It seems like we're supposed to want more and more stuff and for what purpose? And, just yesterday when I went to work with tights that I knew had a giant hole and my usual layers of funky clothes I thought, I am definitely not "the girl with the perfect manicure". It's just not going to happen you know? I don't know how much things have really changed over time but I do know there are different expectations living in Southern California than in Oregon. I think a lot of it is who you hang out with.
Your so on the money with this post. As I live and breath this 'Being perfect' ideal most days...I find the concept of 'dagging around' refreshing, one I have taught my children and an expression I have my son using! It's immensely rewarding after all the un-natural running around we do as mothers.
and lots of people *really* into getting married ... sigh! I fear too - that the conservative edge of the craft community fits in with all this too :-(
Thanks for all your comments! I'm kind of glad I'm not just making it up in my own mind (then again, that might have been better).
Sabine: interesting point about how pics of ordinary women in the 50s often look very stylish -- it's true. I wonder if we'll look back on 2008 and think the same? (My kids won't! Most pics of me are taken by my 4yo when I'm still in my pj's with my hair unbrushed!)
Paintergirl: I have noticed that too! Heaps of really young people we know are getting hitched! (Like, early- to mid-20s!)
PLUS there is a strong sort of teenage culture going on at the moment, like it seemed to be in the 50s.
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