Why did all those cool expressions from the 60′s fade out? I watch old reruns of Hawaii-Five-O almost daily and they say things like, “Crazy, Baby” and add “Baby” to everyone’s name. What if we did that now, would it be seen as archaic? I’m reminded too of that Russ Meyer classic, “Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill!” and how the lead women did the same, added “Baby” when addressing each other, even though they savagely had a love-hate relationship with one another. It could be used with either male or female, addressed to either gender.
The 60′s must have been another time altogether. I don’t think our current era has any kind of gender-neutral moniker like “Baby” like they did in the 60′s. Maybe a modern equivalent would be “dude” but that terms seems to have heavy traces of masculinity attached to it.
And, on the question of gender, is Lady Gaga a feminist? Have you seen the latest “Telephone” video? Or is she just defiant with artistic license? What would Camille Paglia say?
Peggy- the 60s WERE another country.
In my brother’s Graduation Ball at the University of Leeds, many people didn’t bother going to the downstairs ballroom to listen to Eric Clapton- because The Who were playing at the same time in the upstairs ballroom! And don’t forget- the Flower Power thing wasn’t about unbridled hedonism, it was in many ways a political movement born out a collective anxiety that the whole world would have been blown to bits well before the year 2000….
Hi, Colin,
That’s what I’ve heard from those from that era (my mother included). One of my favorite books is by Joan Didion–”Play it as it Lays”. It was written in 1969. I can only experience the times variously through literature, media, and other’s narratives. I’m a child of the 80′s but I think there was still traces of the Reagan-Thatcher cold war era and the nuclear anxieties.
Peggy