Hot Old Skool Babes

Woebot

Well-known member
OK please forgive me for the slightly chauvinistic tone.

Was thinking recently how I don't find the Andy McDowell of "Groundhog Day" (unimpeachable film, surely) as hot as I used to.

got to musing about the perennial nature of beauty, how one generations notion differs from anothers.

then i thought...hey, what about the impossibly hot ladeez of the past!

heres two:

diana rigg/emma peel
 

owen

Well-known member
well now

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owen

Well-known member
this cuts across sexes, obviously- these men were once swooned over as meatheads like brad pitt is nowadays (finding out a girl fancies him or jude law is like finding out one of your friends has lara croft or abi titmuss posters, i.e evidence of idiocy

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something went horribly wrong with the attractiveness of the celebrated, presumably sometime in the 1980s...would be impossible to look like buster keaton or bacall or marlene d or ivor novello now- viz scarlett johansson's grim attempts to look 'glam'
 
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This conversation turns up a lot lately- why don't/can't women look like they used to (hair-wise, figure-wise, dress-wise, eyebrow-wise, etc.)? Not just glam types either, but people's grandma in old photos, etc.

Even Highsmith from not that long ago:

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.

It's puzzling
 

john eden

male pale and stale
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I'm sure part of it is a reaction against celebrity culture today, not least the preferred body shape and vacancy of sex symbols.

Also perhaps some nostalgia for when we were younger and spent afternoons watching re-runs of 60s tv shows (which is arguably when a lot of ideas about what is attractive were imprinted on us?)

Mebbe there is also a hauntological angle here? Is it the distance and (mis)memories involved, and also the different quality of the lighting/inks/styles?
 
there might have to be a bit of periodisation involved - some of the sixties looks still seem a bit possible to replicate - even if it gets reduced to long straight hair, or twiggy-style short cuts, heavy kohl, op-art dresses etc.

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It's 40s hair I never see any more!

not to mention vintage porn-type arses, that rich port-soaked warble of war-time BBC announcers, the brillo-side parting of young men, the pinched-waists of 1950s housewives, natty dressing of any kind, proper hats, etc. etc. etc....
 

borderpolice

Well-known member
infinite thought said:
This conversation turns up a lot lately- why don't/can't women look like they used to (hair-wise, figure-wise, dress-wise, eyebrow-wise, etc.)? Not just glam types either, but people's grandma in old photos

one of the reasons -- on top of the fashion, style and the like, different posing and public selfpresentation conventions -- surely has to be the advances in film, foto and video technology on one hand (probably more important) and improved make-up, hair gel on the other.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Incidentally I find Andy McDowell grotesquely unattractive, especially in those smug loreal adverts, but generally in any situation in which she is unfortunately encountered.

I'm sure this will come as a blow to both woebot and ms mcdowell.
 

jenks

thread death
:eek:
i can't believe it - when i saw this thread my first thought was karen black but thought i'd be in a minority of one if i posted her, what with everyone plumping for ultracool b+w types.

thanks henry s, although a still from 5 easy pieces would have really made my day
 

dsp13

GAMEBWOY
I have a major crush on Kumi Mizuno... the clone girl from Godzilla vs Monster Zero... sad but true. 60's women were so fly!! Especially the ones from outer space :)
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