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Mary Krieger

Dr. Stacey Frazier

English Comp I 1113-036

29 September 2021

80’s Family’s vs Todays Family’s

In life, we always like to have themed parties to dress up like we are from a different

time, but do we ever look at how things would have been in the past? Family values and roles in

the household have seen a significant change over time. Social acceptance was not a very big

thing in the past, but it is becoming more relevant today. The fashion industry has transformed a

lot over the years, but occasionally you will see some styles make their way back around. Who

would have known when looking at the eighties versus today things would have changed so

much?

When thinking about the eighties you might think it was not that long ago, nonetheless

when looking at what kids were doing then compared to nowadays, a lot has changed. Being a

kid in the eighties would look a lot different than being a kid today. Unlike today, kids in the

eighties were sent outside to play and usually without adult supervision. Now kids are inside

playing video games or watching videos on their cellphones, and when they are outdoors (which

is rare), they are usually with a parent or guardian. In the eighties, cellphones had just started

coming out, and they were huge and expensive, nothing like we have today. So, kids were not

running around with cellphones like they are now. They also had video games in the eighties, but

unlike our many consoles and different platforms we can play on now, they mostly had arcade

games that they usually had to go out of the household to play. In many ways, being a kid in the

eighties looked a lot different than it does today.

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A household in the eighties would probably look like a husband who did the work and

was the money maker while the wife stayed home and did the cooking, cleaning, and childcare.

A lot has changed since then. Social acceptance, LGBTQ+ rights, and higher divorce rates have

made several types of households. We now see them with same-sex parents, stepparents, and

cohabitation in the home. In the eighties, there were only thought to be two genders. With the

LGBTQ+ rights, we now accept many genders such as agender, androgyne, bigender, cisgender,

genderfluid, and many others. You would probably not have seen a father stay home in the

eighties because fathers did the all the work outside of the household. Today fathers are a lot

more involved in child-raising. Some are even stay-at-home dads. That you most likely would

not have seen in the eighties. The different households you would find today would probably be

a shock to the people in the eighties.

When thinking about the eighties, lots of people immediately think about fashion from

that time. People in the eighties were all about wearing big hair and mullets. They would use

tons of aqua net to keep it in place. Today people like to go more for layered looks with choppy

bangs or what we like to call a bob hairstyle. Then there was the spandex, leg warmers, and all

the neon colors of clothes in the eighties that were very popular. You would not see much of that

now. Popular clothing today looks like short skirts, hoodies under blazers, and lots of color

clashing. One thing you might find in the eighties that you might see today is Air Jordan’s, Vans

Classic Slip-Ons, or Doc Martins. These shoes have been around for a long time and are still

popular to this day. Eighties fashion differs substantially from fashion today, but certain styles

will either make their way back around or never leave.

Even though it is fun to dress up like you are from the eighties, fashion was not the only

thing a bit different back then. Life altogether in the eighties would have been much different
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from today. Being a kid was more about playing outside without supervision than having your

face stuck in technology. LGBTQ+ and role reversals have had major effects on household roles

and social norms. The fashion industry is forever growing, and someday someone will be

dressing in our clothes and having twenties-themed parties, but it will not be the nineteen-

twenties, it will be the twenty-twenties. Thinking about all these changes between the eighties

and today makes me wonder where we will be forty years from now and what families will look

like in the future.