Culture of the 80’s

1
Culture of the 80s

• Unit VI- U.S. Cultural History

2
1980s

• The 1980s became the Me! Me! Me! generation of
  status seekers.
• During the 1980s, hostile takeovers, leveraged
  buyouts, and mega-mergers spawned a new breed of
  billionaire. Donald Trump, Leona Helmsley, and
  Ivan Boesky iconed the meteoric rise and fall of
  the rich and famous.
• If you've got it, flaunt it You can have it
  all! Binge buying and credit became a way of life
  and 'Shop Til you Drop' were all watchwords.

3
FACTS about this decade

• Population 226,546,000 Unemployed in 1980
  National Debt 1980 - 914,000,000,000 National
  Debt 1986 - 2,000,000,000,000 Average salary
  15,757 Life Expectancy Male 69.9 Female 77.6
  Minimum Wage 3.10 BMW was 12,000 Mercedes
  280 E was 14,800 Attendance Movies 20
  million/week

4
Interesting events

• Toxic Shock Toxic shock syndrome is a rare,
  life-threatening bacterial infection that has
  been most often associated with the use of
  superabsorbent tampons and occasionally with the
  use of contraceptive sponges.
• In 1980, an outbreak of toxic shock syndrome
  occurred that mostly involved young women who had
  been using a particular brand of superabsorbent
  tampons. The cause of the outbreak seemed to be
  toxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus (staph)
  bacteria
• Medicare-our countrys health insurance program
  for people age 65 or older. Certain people
  younger than age 65 can qualify for Medicare,
  too, including those who have disabilities and
  those who have permanent kidney failure. The
  program helps with the cost of health care, but
  it does not cover all medical expenses or the
  cost of most long-term care. Medicare is
  financed by a portion of the payroll taxes paid
  by workers and their employers. It also is
  financed in part by monthly premiums deducted
  from Social Security checks.
• Just Say No! Nancy Reagans active campaign
  against drug and alcohol abuse.
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial-The official name of
  the Memorial is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It
  is sometimes referred to as VVM or "the Wall".
  The figures are called "The Three Servicemen".
  This is not a war Memorial but a Memorial to
  those who served in the war, both living and dead.

5
Interesting people
Sandra Day OConner
Wayne Williams
Nancy Reagan

• Wayne Williams- From October 1979 to May 1981,
  Wayne Williams killed twenty-seven young black
  boys in Atlanta. At trial Williams was found
  guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Sandra Day OConner- first woman supreme court
  justice.
• Geraldine Ferraro-first woman vice-presidential
  candidate.
• Jesse Jackson- first black presidential
  candidate.
• Rock Hudson- famous actor who died of AIDs
• Jim Bakker-televangelist who was sentenced to 45
  years for selling bogus lifetime vacations.
• Nancy Reagan- President Reagans wife and first
  lady who started the Just Say No to drugs
  program

Jim Bakker
Geraldine Ferraro
Jesse Jackson
6
Education

• 1980 study by UCLA and American Council on
  Education indicated that college freshmen were
  more interested in status, power, and money than
  at any time during the past 15 years. Business
  Management was the most popular major.
• American education came under fire during the
  1980s. Liberals cried out against budget cuts and
  rising student costs. School districts offered
  teachers exams and exit exams became a part of
  graduating for Education majors.
• Conservatives like E.D.Hirsch, Jr. and William
  Bennett advocated a return to the classics for
  college students and back to the basic skills for
  public school students. An attempt was made to
  improve the teacher quality by raising salaries
  slightly. Efforts to censor books tripled in the
  eighties. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ,
  The Grapes of Wrath, and Catcher in the Rye were
  among books banned in New York State. Roget's
  Thesaurus banned sexist categories mankind
  becamehumankind countryman became country
  dweller. Columbia University, the last all male
  Ivy League school, began accepting women in 1983.
  President Reagan endorsed a constitutional
  amendment to permit school prayer. It was
  defeated.

7
Medical Advances

• Research money allowed for studies and new
  treatments for heart, cancer, and other diseases.
  
• Major advances in genetics research led to the
  1988 funding of the Human Genome Project. This
  project will locate the estimated 80,000 genes
  contained in human DNA.

8
Sports

• Team sports for kids were really popular
  beginning in the seventies and going through the
  present. Eighties' mothers ran carpool after
  work, kids had after school and week end
  cheerleading, baseball, football, soccer, gym,
  dance, jazz, you name it!

9
Fashions

• 80's Flops Ra ra and bubble skirts
  Fluorescent socks and t-shirts Drop waisted
  dresses Lace gloves Fergie bows - in the
  hair White leather fringed cowboy boots - Not
  unless you're Dolly Parton and you're boot
  scooting!80's FabulousTie sleeve and Batwing
  tops - Drop earrings - Micro minis - Big gold
  earrings - Multiple belts - Coloured tights - and
  This time round, pair coloured or camel toned
  fishnet tights with a knee length skirt, knee
  high leather boots and a turtleneck for a subtly
  funky effect. Leg warmers.

10
Fads

• Big Hair
• Skater hair and flat tops and Punk
• Painter hats and pierced ears.
• Michael Jackson Thriller coat
• OP, Izod, Argyle- Hawaiian and Rugby Shirts.
• Parachute pants.
• Converse Hightops
• Pegged jeans
• Jelly shoes
• Zubaz and spandex
• Valley Girl
• Michael Jackson glove and Miami Vice look
• Swatch watches
• Rubiks cube
• Pacman, Nintendo, and Gameboy
• Smurf, ET, and Cabbage Patch Dolls
• Sneakers

11
Music

• Cable TV and MTV
• Slam dancing and break dancing
• Vogueing (posing)
• Pop, rock, new wave, punk, country, and
  especially rap or hip hop
• Milli Vanilli, M. C. Hammer , Vanilla Ice, and
  L.L. Cool J.

12
Movies

• Nerds- Revenge of the Nerds, Lucas, Stand by Me,
  and Peggy Sue Got Married. TV joined the nerd
  ranks with ABC's hit series Head of the Class
• In 1981, VCR sales rose 72 in 12 months.
• By 1989, 60 percent of American households with
  televisions received cable service.
• Huge or memorable movies of the decade included
  On Golden Pond, Tootsie, Arthur, Stephen
  Spielberg Movies like E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL,
  The Big Chill, Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Out
  of Africa, Back to the Future, Cocoon, The
  Breakfast Club,Platoon,Star Trek, Good Morning
  Vietnam, Fatal Attraction, Rain Man, and Driving
  Miss Daisy.

13
Television

• Anti-family sitcoms like Roseanne and
  Married...with Children
• Tabloid tv with Geraldo, Phil, Sally, and Oprah
• Stand up comics included Gary Shandling, Jane
  Curtin, George Carlin, Jackie Mason, Bill Cosby,
  Jerry Seinfeld, and Tracy Ullman
• Info-tainment includedNightline with Ted Koppel,
  CNN Cable News,and 20/20 with Hugh Downs and
  Barbara Walters. 60 Minutes which had first aired
  in 1968 was bigger than ever.

14
Foods

• Food of the 80s included the popular fast food
  places like Taco Bell and
• McDonald's McDLT and McRib. Kids loved Sweetarts,
  Skittles, Nerds, Runts, Hubba Bubba Chewing Gum,
  and Five Alive.

15
Soviets Invade Afghanistan

• The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a 10-year
  war fought between the Soviet Red Army, Afghan,
  and foreign fighters in Afghanistan. The
  'shooting' war is generally held to have started
  December 24, 1979. Soviet troops ultimately
  withdrew from the area between May 15, 1988 and
  February 2, 1989. The Soviet Union officially
  announced that all of its troops had left
  Afghanistan on February 15.
• The CIA invested US2.1 billion over a 10-year
  period to create an anti-Soviet resistance.
• USSR- 15,000 Killed,53,000 Wounded
• Afghanistan- 90,000 Killed, 90,000 Wounded,
  Roughly 1.3 Million Civilian deaths.
• One of these benefactors of the war was Osama bin
  Laden
• Resistance fighters, called mujahidin, saw the
  Christian or atheist Soviets controlling
  Afghanistan as a defilement of Islam as well as
  of their traditional culture. Proclaiming a
  "jihad"(holy war), they gained the support of the
  Islamic world. The US gave them weapons and
  money. The mujahidin employed guerrilla tactics
  against the Soviets.
• U.S stops grain sales to USSR and boycotts Moscow
  Olympics.

16
Iran Hostage crisis

• The overthrow of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi of
  Iran by an Islamic revolutionary government
  earlier in the year had led to a steady
  deterioration in Iran-U.S. relations. In response
  to the exiled shahs admission (Sept., 1979) to
  the United States for medical treatment, a crowd
  of about 500 seized the embassy. Of the
  approximately 90 people inside the embassy, 52
  remained in captivity until the end of the
  crisis.
• On Jan. 20, 1981, the day of President Reagans
  inauguration, the United States released almost
  8 billion in Iranian assets and the 52 hostages
  were freed after 444 days in Iranian detention
  the agreement gave Iran immunity from lawsuits
  arising from the incident.

17
John Lennon shot and killed

• John Lennon was shot and killed in New York. The
  gunman, Mark Chapman, apparently shouted 'I am
  the Catcher in the Rye' just before dropping to
  the ground and firing the weapon.

18
Challenger Tragedy

• January 28, 1986- Just 73 seconds after liftoff,
  the shuttle exploded. Debris rained into the
  Atlantic Ocean for more than an hour afterward.
• All seven members of the crew were killed in the
  accident.
• Teacher Christa McAuliffe was chosen from more
  than 11,000 applicants to train for the mission.
  She was to teach classroom lessons from space by
  satellite TV.
• Reagan created the "The Presidential Commission
  on the Space Shuttle" on February 3, 1986 to
  investigate the accident independently from NASA.

19
Chernobyl

• In the early morning hours of 26 April 1986, a
  testing error caused an explosion at the
  Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern
  Ukraine. During a radioactive fire that burned
  for 10 days, 190 tons of toxic materials were
  expelled into the atmosphere. The wind blew 70
  of the radioactive material into the neighboring
  country of Belarus. Almost 20 years later, the
  people of Belarus continue to suffer medically,
  economically, environmentally and socially from
  the effects of the disaster. These are the facts
  The Accident The Chernobyl power plant is
  located on the border area between Ukraine and
  Belarus. The explosion of the reactor at
  Chernobyl released 100 times more radiation than
  the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
  (1) At the time of the accident, about 7
  million people lived in contaminated territories,
  including 3 million children. About 5.5
  million people - including more than a million
  children - continue to live in contaminated
  zones. (2)Thyroid cancer, Leukemia, Childhood
  diseases, Cancers, Birth Defects, Genetic
  mutations and Heart disease.

20
Tianamen Square

• On May 13, 1989, several students began a hunger
  strike at Tiananmen Square in the afternoon and
  formal talks with the government began a day
  later but they quickly broke down. Among the
  demands of the students and workers were more
  democracy, less corruption, and accurate press
  coverage. Days later, after no conclusion was
  reached, the government prepared to declare
  martial law
• On June 3, 1989, troops received orders to
  reclaim Tiananmen Square at all costs.
• Due to a lack of witnesses, the exact number of
  people killed in this so-called "Tiananmen Square
  Massacre" is not known. Some say that it was as
  few as 500 and as many as 3000.

21
The Berlin Wall and the end of Communism

• Mikhail Gorbachev- head of the Communist party in
  USSR in 1985 at age 54. Introduced new policies
  of reform.
• Glasnost- (openness) a policy to encourage Soviet
  citizens to openly exchange information and
  ideas- to criticize.
• Perestroika- (restructuring) a policy to
  restructure the economy, with less government
  control over business.
• End the dominance of the Communist party-
  democratization.
• New thinking in foreign affairs.
• Collapse of the Soviet Union
• Nationalist unrest
• Lithuanian independence movement
• Coup by conservatives- army refuses and communism
  fails
• 1991- Dec. 25 Gorbachev resigns as president of
  USSR
• East German Crisis
• Honecker of East Germany opposed reform (he had
  helped build the wall in 1961)
• East Germany ran up a huge debt trading with the
  West.
• East Germans began to learn of western products
  and democratic reforms.
• Honecker replace and East German borders opened
  and the wall was taken down
• October 3, 1990 East and West Germany reunited.

22
Yugoslavia

• 1980- Tito Dies and the people demand multiparty
  elections.
• 1990 Elections held- Communists lost everywhere
  except Serbia and Montenegro.
• Serbian Leader Slobodan Milosevic calls for
  creation of a Greater Serbia.
• Croatia and Slovenia declare independence from
  Yugoslavia.
• Serb send Yugoslav army to stop Croatia and
  Slovenia from leaving federation.
• Cease fire in 1992, Croatia independent.
• 1991- Macedonia declares independence.
• 1992 Bosnia-Herzgovina declares independence and
  Bosnian Serbs begin ethnic cleansing to get rid
  of Bosnian Muslims. Serbs control 70 of Bosnia.
• 1995- Peace Treaty signed. Bosnia-Herzgovina
  independent.
• Kosovo- Province of Yugoslavia. Wants
  independence. Milosevic attacks.
• NATO and UN intervene in Kosovo and Yugoslavia.