'80s Actual - Why Do I Do It?

'80s pop culture items - Gilbert The Alien Bendy Toy from 1989, a mid-1980s ghetto blaster, a clockwork Pac-Man, two mobile phones, a Weetabix lunchbox, a 1981 Rubik's Cube mug, a compact disc in "jewel case" and a mid-'80s "Smash Hits"!

Sharon has written:

Can I just ask you what inspired you to write this blog? I do enjoy it by the way!

Sure, Sharon. I started the blog because I was a little bored by the rewriting of recent history that was going on a few years ago (it's still a bit of a problem) and because I wanted to design a place where people who actually remembered the 1980s could come and have a wallow in nostalgia.

I was inspired by various TV programmes, web sites and books which either implied or stated that the 1980s were not worthy of examination and, in fact (being the era of Thatcher and Reagan), stank to high heaven. I was intrigued that these TV programmes, web sites and books tended to rewrite history, moving important inventions and developments and fondly remembered pop culture of the 1980s to the 1970s or 1990s. At the same time, the 1970s were suddenly being touted as paradise on earth!

And I'm afraid, like the 1980s, they were far from it.

But the 1980s seemed to be becoming the scapegoat decade, blamed for all modern ills.

So, I thought: Let's have a blog for people who want to either recall the 1980s - or learn about them - as they actually were - to visit and enjoy.

Hence the title '80s Actual.

Glad you enjoy it. I love writing it - if only I had more time!

The Sun Page 7 Fella

A Sun newspaper "Page 7 Fella" from February 1985. Note the 1980s bouffant mullet hairdo! 

The Sun Page 7 Fella caused a stir when he arrived in the early 1980s. Was this equality at last? No! said some - a male torso was in no way as revealing as a woman's breasts - many of which were to be seen on Page 3 over the years. But then 95% of workplace deaths being male and feminists' constant looking at a 'Glass Ceiling' and never a 'Glass Cellar' isn't equality either. And neither is the fact that domestic violence by women gets such scant attention. And sexual harassment. I've had some of that myself.

By 1988, the Sun had its own women's section - Sun Woman - and so at last there was a male Page 3, rather than a page 7. This particular "fella" dates from September '88. But, some complained, it wasn't really equality. A male torso was in no way as revealing as a woman's breasts. But then what is equality? The gender workplace death gap? The 'glass cellar' jobs gap? The gender custodial sentencing gap - massively skewed against males? The fact that until recently women retired five years earlier than men? Life is a lot more complex than the constant misandry spewed by the so-called equality movement, which has been so long accepted by the vast majority of people.