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Broken clock and all that
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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Attitudes about gays and transgenders actually got worse coming from the 1960s into the 1980s. The sexual revolution actually created a generation far more open and accepting, and the culture that lead to things like the Satanic panic, war on drugs, and resurgence of patriotism and religiosity in the United States actually made things worse for gay and trans.
Indeed, and in a broader view, humanity has literally always had trans people as long as it has had a concept of gender. So "in the 80s" is emphasizing the cultural lie that acceptance is a recent phenomenon, when actually bigotry about it is the recent phenomenon. The 80s were certainly not an amazing time for LGBTQ folk, but Playboy at least would have been sex-positive and accepting.
So this isn't a "stopped clock is right twice a day" situation, because sex-positive spaces and media would have been more reliable clocks than the culture at large, when it came to this subject.
I think it’s also important to understand the real nuances there. For trans people it got worse into the 80s, like a lot worse. For cis gay people it got different. In the 60s being openly gay would probably get you fired and arrested and it was considered a mental illness. And the sexual revolution was somewhat open minded, but not particularly, better but by no means good. By the 80s it was a culture war issue. The people who’d discounted you as mentally ill were now crying for your death by aids as a sinner spreading your sin. Where before they could ignore you now they were acknowledging you.
For trans people it was just unequivocally worse. In the 60s you were a medical curiosity and possibly a cure to homosexuality. Your forebears had been so aggressively stamped out that the cultural hate had been somewhat forgotten. But by the 80s everyone had found a reason to hate you. The right considered you no different from gay people except sneakier, and second wave feminism had decided that you were antithetical to feminism and deserved to be shunned. All while if you weren’t pretty and straight you couldn’t even get access to hormones and if you couldn’t completely bury your past your job options mostly involved sex work.
Not to mention aids
Led to a big dip in the arts as well.
Look at Tony Best Musical winners/nominees from the 90s. The only truly memorable ones (and probably the only ones still touring) are Rent (surprise, AIDS!) and Miss Saigon. Then a couple of Disney shows (Lion King and Beauty and the Beast) and that’s about it.
Starts picking up in 2001 again with Full Monty and The Producers…2002, Mama Mia…2003, Hairpray…2004, Wicked…2005, Spamalot…2006, Jersey Boys and The Wedding Singer…and so on. Nearly every season has had an amazing blockbuster show that has (or will have) staying power. The late 80s and 90s were a total rut for that.
I’d even say it started falling off earlier, circa 1979. What did we get after Sweeney Todd? The entire decade, best shows were Cats, Phantom, Joseph, Into the Woods and Les Mis. That’s about it. And a lot of people aren’t Cats-people.
There were 2 types of baby boomer. The culturally freeing, drug taking, sexual revolution, playboy buying type.
And the type who hated those free people and thought they were morally wrong. If they were invited they wouldn't have turned up to any of that stuff anyway.
I'd love to see a study on if the free living cohort died early or not. Because they aren't in the majority of that generation now. Voting wise they swung the US towards the Republicans, the "greatest" generation and the "silent" generation leaned democrat.
Lots of what was seen as progressive could be framed as no-one should face an oppressive culture. Or it could be framed as I shouldn't face an oppressive culture.
It will take a hundred years before the bizarre social coincidence of such a large generation gets understood. Once they, and maybe their children, aren't around to write the history books an objective viewing might not show them in a positive light overall.
Coasted on the success of the generation before, taken from the generation after. Held back social progress as soon as they had wealth.
There was a study somewhere in the reddit days that would say: every generation gets to be mostly leftist when young and transition to rightist as they age; but the last generation (millennials? Z?) also tends to follow the trend but the trend is weaker than it ever was. Remain to be seen where they learn when they get r to middle age.
Culturally I can see it.
Economically I can't.
The silent generation and greatest generation didn't track that way in the UK.
The similar studies I've seen show the boomers lurching to the right and older generations being basically consistent post war.
This also tracks with the "post war consensus" between parties in the UK and essentially identical Keynesian economic policy until Thatcher and Regan in the US.
Being part of the post war rebuild and remembering the new deal that generation remained essentially Keynesian.
Boomers went full on Ayn Rand and hand of the market trickle-down economics. Gen X get to hide in the noise, millennials are consistently against trickle-down economics having come of age in cut backs and austerity. Even favouring full on socialists. Gen Z basically track with millennials economically.
The culture war might make it seem like we all track right over time and the millennials are different to zennials. If anything Gen Z being clearly more outspoken on environmental issues is making some millennials I know more liberal rather than tracking to the right.
While some millennials don't like being told the homophobic jokes they grew up with in sitcoms are wrong. Most seem to accept that and move with the times still.
As I get older, the more I become a leftist. Age has brought me insight about the numerous world's problems and we need to show solidarity in tackling all these issues.