The 1980's in America

   

 

      The 1980's are known by some as the golden days and by others as a decade of greed. It was the decade of big business, the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan. I Interviewed my mom, Jalene Line, about the 1980's and found out that they really do match up to many of their stereotypes. She was in her teens during the eighties and so she has a good memory for both what was going on in youth culture and in the world of adults. For her, the eighties weren't necessarily a bad or a good time; they were just a "learning time". 

      My mom wasn't really into punk or hard rock, but she did like a lot of the popular bands of that time. Some of the bands she liked were REO Speedwagon, Journey, Michael Jackson, Prince, U2, and Heart. Some bands she didn't like, but that were popular around that time, were ACDC and Black Sabbath. My mom wasn't one of the punk rockers of the 1980's, but she was definitely still interested in music that was current.

 

      Sports, according to my mom, weren't all too different in the 1980's than they are today. Football, hockey, basketball, and baseball were all popular, but soccer hadn't yet come into play. My mom did cross country running. Going to professional games in the 1980's was a lot less expensive. Parents were also less focused on having their kids in multiple sports the way they are today. Overall, sports were more layed back. 

      Technology of the 1980's, including TV, movies, and electronics, was far behind present day. There were no slim phones like the ones we have now and computers were just beginning to be personalized. My mom recalls having to dial up for WiFi and having to wait, a foreign concept to our present generation. There were no DVDs or CD's. Instead, people used VHS movies (those big black rectangles from your childhood) and cassette tapes. TV's were very bulky; they were pretty much cubes. The ratings for movies were also different. Pg 13 movies were very sketchy at times and so were pg movies. Computer graphics didn't really exist, so movies weren't as realistic and their special effects required a good deal of creativity. My mom watched a lot of TV because it was always on at her mom's. Her parents were divorced too, so her mom wasn't home very often and she got bored easily with only one brother. These characteristics about my mom are pretty direct parallels to the stereotype generation X. 

      In 1985, my mom voted for the first time. She voted for Ronald Reagan and hasn't regretted it since. "He was always smiling and positive", she says, "and he had a grandfatherly feel to him." She also agreed with his Star Wars plan to shoot down nuclear weapons from space. The Cold War made my mom afraid of Russia in a distant sort of way, but otherwise, it affected her little. My mom was a nurse, and so she saw a lot of AIDS patients. This affected her much more. She believes AIDS was God's way of punishing our sin, specifically homosexuality. 

      My mom was half in and half out of youth culture. She recalls mullets and feathering the hair were popular hair styles. Bell bottoms, high rise jeans, puffy sleeved shirts and dresses, satin dresses, and boot cut jeans were all popular types of clothing. She also remembers banana combs being popular, as well as tiger tennis-shoes, star wars merchandise, and star trek merchandise. 

 

      My mom was a nurse, a very common job. She recalls employment being hard to get in Duluth, but much easier in the Twin Cities. Houses in the 1980's were often split level houses, ramblers, or same story houses. They were commonly very floral and french country in style. Lot's of blue's and mauve's were used in decorating. Vehicles were much larger than they are today, and some common ones were Cadillacs, Old mobiles, and Volkswagens. There were also more trains in the 1980's and airplane security was very minimal. In fact, people could accompany a family member all the way to their plane. This was because 9/11 hadn't yet occurred.   

       In the 1980's, Christianity was much more accepted. Bible studies often formed in schools and youth pastors could come visit the kids. My mom remembers being in one such bible study. Their were more christian communities, and other religion were not nearly as common. For example, Muslim communities were not so common. This is to show the increased cultural diversity in the U.S. till now. 

      Health and Exercise were becoming more and more prevalent in the 1980's. There were lots of health clubs, of which my mom joined a few. People were just getting into low fat foods, wheat germ, eliminating cholesterol, not eating eggs, and lots of low fat dieting. 

     My generation, the millennials, aren't sure what to think of the 80's, at least I'm not. They aren't old enough to be attractive, and they aren't recent enough to be a source of nostalgia.   

Pasand Apni Apni

   

      In the Indian film, Pasand Apni Apni (1983), the differences between lower class, middle class, and upper class are clearly portrayed in three main characters: Geeta (Rati Agnihotri), Sandeep Anand (Mithun Chakraborty), and Sriram Chaudhary (Utpal Dutt).

      Geeta is lower class. She lives in a dinky apartment-like building with her brother and her mother. They eat small homemade meals together on the floor. Because they are so poor, Geeta's mother and brother rely on her for financial support. She works as a dancer for Sriram Chaudhary and is constantly arriving to work late due to her own tendencies as well as transportation inconsistencies. In general, it seems like the lower class are less puntual. Her clothes are simple (besides the ones she wears dancing), yet beautiful. She never takes taxis or rides in cars because they are too expensive. Even Sriram Chaudhary, her boss, doesn't usually. Instead, she takes an extremely crowded bus or walks. At the beginning of the movie, Geeta is having a hard time paying rent and is in debt to her landlord. She doesn't eat out often, but when she does, she goes to a more casual place because of prices. Geeta's life is hard, but it's not terrible.

       Sriram Chaudhary is middle class. He owns a play-making franchise and relies on a group of sponsors to continue running his business. During most of the movie, he doesn't have any money to pay his sponsors back and they are growing impatient with them. In their presence, he is helpless, but when he is with his employees, he becomes extremely controlling and bossy. It is probably because of his impatience and anxiety over his lack of money and their demand for it that stirs his anger towards the young actresses. He is also just unreasonable, though. His clothing is moderately nice (ex: shiny black hat) and his style is a bit merchant-like. He is very money hungry, even though he's at a reasonably good place in life. When he finds evidence leading him to believe Sandeep, one of the richest men in Bombay, is in love with his employee Geeta, he decides to take advantage of Sandeep's wealth. There is a stereotype that may be attached to that correlation; that middle class people aren't in need, yet they still want more and more. it is more probable, however, that those are just characteristics of Sriram in particular, as the movie seems to speak against prejudice. 

      Sandeep Anand is upper class. He is the head of a giant franchise and lives by himself in a house with "ten or twelve rooms." He wears suits and "nicer" western clothing and he can write out checks for 100,000 rupees on a whim. He is the only character who has a habit of smoking, a more expensive habit. He has a very professional air about him at his work place and he is very intelligent and assertive. Because he is so rich and respected, people recognize him wherever he goes (unless he's disguised, of course). He is also able to do pretty much whatever he wants. He can chase Geeta around, because he doesn't need to work for a living twenty-four seven - or at all, really. Being rich also probably encourages a sense of being able to have whatever he wants (Geeta, for example). On the reverse, however, he is accountable to his whole company and does hold a lot of responsibility.  

      Ideals of privacy, individualism, and community are more subtly expressed in the film. Geeta is a mixture of pride in the poor community and independent fire. She reminds me of a representative for a group; she is very much her own, yet she loves and cares about "her people". Her problem is that she is very biased against rich people. This however, makes sense. They seem to hold their ease of life over the poor, to her, and she simply doesn't understand them. 

      Sriram doesn't seem to really care who he associates with, as long as it benefits him. For example, he is extremely friendly to Geeta, because she is his connection to Sandeep. He then literally worships Sandeep, because he is his connection to money.

      Sandeep, although he is so rich, has no prejudices against the poor, only petty girls. He is so comfortable with them, that he dresses up as on and then falls in love with one, Geeta. he has mercy towards them as well, and gives Sriram 100,000 rupees. He also seemed to have been showing his money off, however. He is able to have literal privacy (be alone at home), but publicly he is known everywhere, though he doesn't seem to mind. The poor, on the other hand, are around people plenty, but are known of by no one.

      We never see Sriram's living conditions, but we do see Geeta's and Sandeep's and they are quite different. Geeta's house looks as if it is two or three rooms. The whole house is small and somewhat cluttered, but the family is close. it would be physically uncomfortable to live in such conditions, but it would be emotionally and spiritually reviving to have such close family. Living in such a home contributed to Geeta's bias against rich people. It also contributed to her loyalty to her family. Although Geeta is depicted as being among the poor, that probably isn't accurate for that time in Bombay. Around fifty percent of the people were living in the slums in Bombay in the 1980's. Geeta isn't quite living in the slums. The government probably wouldn't have allowed the producers to create a true representation of the poor, because it would raise awareness. 

      As mentioned previously, Sandeep's house is giant. He has twelve rooms all to himself. His bedroom is beautiful, and he sleeps alone in a king-sized bed. He has his own servants, who serve him tea and such. Physically, his life is luxurious, but he is very lonely. his rich position in life causes him to be able to help Geeta monumentally, but it also means she is prejudiced against his true identity when it is uncovered. 

      The urban dream in Bombay during the 1980's was probably right in between where Geeta was and where Sandeep was. They wanted to be hardworking and family oriented, but they also wanted to be reasonably comfortable. For some people, they may have wanted simply to be rich, but there were also a lot of people like Geeta, who held grudges against the rich. This was probably because they felt that people with money should be helping them more instead of spending it on only themselves.