Breaking ‘Heteronormativity’

The 80s

Society has changed alot in the past 40 years, now we’re in 2022, there has been massive changes in what society deems acceptable and unacceptable. The 80s was a very party orientated and colourful period in time, but as society and acceptence goes, you’d be surprised.

Travelling back 40 odd years ago, society was a lot different and a-lot of acceptances that we find normal now were frowned upon and often not accepted in everyday life. Things such as marijuana, sexuality, race and more were all on a different level of acceptance in society as they are today. For instance looking at sexuality, in the 80s there were periods of intensified homophobia that were sanctioned by the top echelons of society, the church, police and so on. Look at America for example, many states considered same sex partners and sexual intercourse between the same sex to be illegal until all 50 states relinquished all laws agains same sex sexual activity in 2003. So being in the 80s and being openly gay or homosexual could have meant jail time, and in my opinion, absolutely ridiculous, the way in which people viewed someone sexual identity was very opinionated and people who had a sexualorientation other than straight found it very uncomfortable talking about their sexuality and hid it in most cases. However there are those role models that even during the very judged and particular time, came out publicly as homosexual, looking at Elton John who came out in 1988 he stated in an interview “Its not exactly a secret. I live with my manager. Im openly gay outside.” This being a big deal in the 80s really opened the community out to become more comfortable with who they are not ‘hide’ anymore, in my opinion the way it should be.

An uncomfortable era for someone without white skin the 80s, examples of the suppression of life due to the stupid fact of someone having different coloured skin are such as, better educational opportunities not given even if they were gifted in a special area, suppression in job opportunities, much more common use of racial words used as insults that into days society is deemed inappropriate and wrong, regular rioting between people of colour and police due to these suppressions and treatment. It was all bad however, it was around this era where people of colour started to develop rights and have a voice amongst the crowd, for example in January of 1980 American entrepreneur Robert L. Johnson launches Black Entertainment Television, September 27th the same year Journalist Bryant Gumbel becomes the first black person to be a anchor on a major network when he joins the ‘today’ show, January 2nd 1983, W. Wilson Goode becomes the first black mayor of Philadelphia, the era has its up and downs but is still very different compared to the modern day In age as there was still the high level of background racism.

Looking into the acceptance of marijuana, in the 1980s it was actually less accetpable in society as it is in todays day in age, in 1988 only 24% of Americans supported the legalization of marijuana, if you look deep into some statistical facts between the ages 12 - 17 nealry 1 in 3 people have tried marijuana once in their life, comparing to some of the statistics now these levels of consumption were not as big as expected.

Looking into the more modern 2000s era, you can see the leap into the acceptance of race, homosexuallity and marijuana. There are now laws in place and people’s views have changed.

Now in more modern society there’s a fight against homophobia and insults regarding sexuality has come levels below what they were in the 80s. For example in the year 2000, the ban of lesbian and gay men serving in the united kingdom armed forces is lifted, December of the same year, the age of consent is brought dow to equalise the age of consent for a heterosexual relationship from 18 down to 16, the use of offensive sexualisation terms are frowned upon and become less used, in 2001 the German civil union bill goes into effect and by the year 2015, all states in America are accepting of homosexual relationships. A massive leap forward to the complete legalisation of homosexual relationship and a more comfortable and strong community.

Looking into race and acceptance of colour, jobs now no longer base decisions on the colour of the applicants skin but by the content of their character, there are now equal right laws in place ( the equality act 2010 - must not be discriminated against because of your race ) the unacceptance of racial slurs and language, judgement from people has change and society is more accepting of people of colour and culture, there are still counties and states ‘living in the past’ and aren’t as accepting but society as a whole has come levels above where we use to be

Finally looking into marijuana, the use of weed has become more and more acceptable over the years to be used both medically and as a form of enjoyment. Roughly 266 million people smoke marijuana once every year and around 13% of Americans are regular users of marijuana.

Another example is that in 2012 marijuana was legalised for recreational use in both Washington state and Colorado, and there is also a wide spread debate to legalise the drug as a whole as their are many medical benefits such as fighting and slowing cancer, improving mental health and helps weight loss.

Society in a whole has come a long way since the 80s in its acceptance of race, sexuality and drug use and it has all been so far for the better, I for one hope that as a society we continue this positive trajectory and continue to be more and more accepting. u

by Jordan Gower