@jj-adams saidSame here, I grew up as a kid in the 50's too. One of the advantages for people of our generation is we have first hand knowledge of how things have changed. And the same can be said for our parent's generation and their personal experiences. Learning from history is useful but let's face it, there's no substitute for being there.
My disconnect with today is getting weird, compared to the 1950's when I was a kid, this world today is a confusing landmine of OMGWTFBBQ to me.
How far down the rabbit hole do Western cultures want to go to prove they are not racist?
When the last of them disappear?
Life in the 50's and 60's wasn't perfect by a long shot, but at least we have personal experience for comparing what life was back then to what it's like now. For example, when I was born a brief examination was all that was needed to determine whether I was a boy or a girl. And anyone who genuinely thought gender was assigned (rather than determined) would probably need to have their head examined and prescribed the appropriate medication.
@kilroy70 saidIf you have been paying any attention over your 80 years on this earth, you would know that the latter half of your post are just regurgitation of political right wing talking points. Right?
Same here, I grew up as a kid in the 50's too. One of the advantages for people of our generation is we have first hand knowledge of how things have changed. And the same can be said for our parent's generation and their personal experiences. Learning from history is useful but let's face it, there's no substitute for being there.
Life in the 50's and 60's wasn't perfect by ...[text shortened]... termined) would probably need to have their head examined and prescribed the appropriate medication.
If you grew up in the 1950's then you remember that that was the first decade in which mandatory sex testing for athletes was instituted. Why? Because it was a big problem back then, too.
In the 70's? Yeesh. Our toughest dudes were cross-dressers. All male sex symbols were effeminate cross-dressers. Roger Plant, David Bowie, Keith Moon, Keith Richards. They walked, talked and dressed like women. 50 years ago. You should google the Poison album cover from 1986 if you don't remember. One could make the argument that cross dressing was a lot more mainstream than it is now.
Comedic movies like Ladybugs and Juwana Man and Mrs. Doubtfire took the idea and ran with it. They were funny too.
This isn't a new thing.
What's new? What's changed? Technology, mostly, and political polarization. We're addicted to screens and phones and tech companies have our demographic all worked out for what we enjoy reading about for a dopamine hit. Medical advances have made it possible for body modifications that can make someone look indistinguishable from someone born of that gender.
But culture? comes and goes and ebbs and flows and anyone with a healthy perspective would recognize this.
09 May 23
@kilroy70 saidThey’d probably same about a black person who wanted to use the same water fountain as a white person, or sit where they liked on a bus. Oh yes those halcyon days where did they go 🥲
Same here, I grew up as a kid in the 50's too. One of the advantages for people of our generation is we have first hand knowledge of how things have changed. And the same can be said for our parent's generation and their personal experiences. Learning from history is useful but let's face it, there's no substitute for being there.
Life in the 50's and 60's wasn't perfect by ...[text shortened]... termined) would probably need to have their head examined and prescribed the appropriate medication.
09 May 23
@wildgrass saidI understand that Marlon Brando and Richard Pryor were lovers
If you have been paying any attention over your 80 years on this earth, you would know that the latter half of your post are just regurgitation of political right wing talking points. Right?
If you grew up in the 1950's then you remember that that was the first decade in which mandatory sex testing for athletes was instituted. Why? Because it was a big problem back then, ...[text shortened]... lture? comes and goes and ebbs and flows and anyone with a healthy perspective would recognize this.
09 May 23
Loved the 50's life. Growing up as a kid we had heroes like Ted Williams and Bobby Orr. No drugs. We were patriotic and got along.
But today is the worst, sociologically, I have ever seen this America and it's not even close. crazy stuff. Random killings. WT....?!
People have no respect for anyone including themselves. bang bang.
No one is perfect but I'll take the fifties any time
09 May 23
@earl-of-trumps saidYou didn’t mind racial segregation?
Loved the 50's life. Growing up as a kid we had heroes like Ted Williams and Bobby Orr. No drugs. We were patriotic and got along.
But today is the worst, sociologically, I have ever seen this America and it's not even close. crazy stuff. Random killings. WT....?!
People have no respect for anyone including themselves. bang bang.
No one is perfect but I'll take the fifties any time
@athousandyoung saidI was too young to understand it that way. everything was pretty peaceful for me.
You didn’t mind racial segregation?
I have to tiptoe here so as to not allow too much information out. There are racists in here.
@wildgrass saidHow was your own particular gender assigned? Was a slip of paper with the word male, female or 'other' drawn from a hat? Or maybe someone with a clipboard walked in after you were born and told your parents society has more than enough boys right now, so this one will have to be a girl.
If you have been paying any attention over your 80 years on this earth, you would know that the latter half of your post are just regurgitation of political right wing talking points. Right?
If you grew up in the 1950's then you remember that that was the first decade in which mandatory sex testing for athletes was instituted. Why? Because it was a big problem back then, ...[text shortened]... lture? comes and goes and ebbs and flows and anyone with a healthy perspective would recognize this.
"Just check this box here, then sign here, and here, and initial there. Good, then we're all done, and congratulations... you are now the parents of a healthy newborn baby girl."
10 May 23
@kilroy70 saidWhy does gender have to be "assigned" by an authority figure?
How was your own particular gender assigned? Was a slip of paper with the word male, female or 'other' drawn from a hat? Or maybe someone with a clipboard walked in after you were born and told your parents society has more than enough boys right now, so this one will have to be a girl.
"Just check this box here, then sign here, and here, and initial there. Good, then we're all done, and congratulations... you are now the parents of a healthy newborn baby girl."
10 May 23
When I was young, in the 1950s, children were born with insufficiently developed sex characteristics, just as they are now. Families dealt with it in private, it was never spoken about in public or surgically compensated for. Now it's all out in the open. That's the real difference. Only if you are insufficiently well-informed about human sciences do you think that it's all in those children's heads.
10 May 23
The world really is different now, though. Many things weren't spoken about then. Contraception mostly didn't work. Abortion was common among poor families, we knew what to do and where to go, unless we were Catholic and had to do slave labour in a laundry so that our babies could be taken from us at birth. Mentally retarded or physically deformed children were hidden away, quietly smothered, or left on the orphanage doorstep. Some change-of-life babies believed their mothers were their sisters. Girls were taken out of school to do menial jobs so that boys could get an education or an older family member could be cared for.
10 May 23
@athousandyoung saidWhy does gender have to be "assigned" by anyone? Is gender really something that can be assigned, or determined by a flip of the coin, or be a decision you or someone else makes?
Why does gender have to be "assigned" by an authority figure?
This reminds me of one of those how many people does it take to screw in a light bulb jokes.
So, how many people does it take to pressure someone into abandoning commen sense and reason?
And how goofy does an idea have to be for someone to say "Nope, not this time... I'm not going along with that."
"Today, Nineteen Eighty-Four comes across not as a warning that the actual world of Winston and Julia and O'Brien is in danger of becoming reality. Rather, its true value is that it teaches us that power and tyranny are made possible through the use of words and how they are mediated."
@kilroy70 saidUm in a hospital, what? I have no idea where.yiu come up with this? This thread was about change. Gender lines have been fluidly played with by society for your entire life. You're pretending otherwise, and now apparently inventing a separate world that also does not exist.
How was your own particular gender assigned? Was a slip of paper with the word male, female or 'other' drawn from a hat? Or maybe someone with a clipboard walked in after you were born and told your parents society has more than enough boys right now, so this one will have to be a girl.
"Just check this box here, then sign here, and here, and initial there. Good, then we're all done, and congratulations... you are now the parents of a healthy newborn baby girl."