🕺🏼Teen’s in The 50’s🕺🏼

   Hiya! I’m doing swell if you were wondering. I honestly find keeping the 1950’s idioms present in my English very difficult which goes to show how much slang has changed since the 50’s. Today I’m going to go over some of the 50’s slang that I’ve seen in media and heard in class during our time learning about the era as well as talk about what teenagers could have been like back then. 

“Grease”

   If you’re like me and have a secret love for musicals, chances are you’ve seen the 1978 musical staring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, “Grease.” The movie is set in the 1950’s in a youth and high school setting. It really gives a great perspective as to what high school might’ve been like back then. The main characters are separated into a boys gang and a girls group, the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies. The term Greaser(s), was commonly used to represent a group of teenaged boys, more specifically the “troubled,” ones. The name is fitting considering the persona of the T-Birds in the movie, all tough and popular, minus the singing. This film is full of more mature content which isn’t typically associated with the 1950’s. Characters are described as the Ginchiest, a term that does not roll of the tongue despite it being a compliment. If you get called the ginchiest guy in school, it means you’re the coolest. Why they couldn’t just say cool is a mystery to me. Grease is a very odd movie in my opinion because it really contrasts with the picture perfect idea of the 50’s that I’m used to.

“Pleasantville”

   To entirely counter Grease, another film set in the 50’s is Plesantville. My class watched this to tie off our 50’s project and I must say that it is the completely bonkers. The movie takes two 90’s teens back in time to the picture perfect 50’s town, which they destroy. Eventually everything is fine again but the contrast of values and beliefs is really evident. Both Grease and Pleasantville are centred around teen lives. Grease goes all out with the more rock n’ roll, rebellious type of teen, while Pleasantville starts out with teens taking a stroll up to lovers lane and ends with them playing back seat bingo (more 50’s slang). I think that the contrast between two movies or even just Grease and the start of Pleasantville really highlights that the 50’s are kind of deceiving. We may see the era as picture perfect and as if there was no rebellion or rule breaking, but Grease disregards that entirely. It’s hard to say which was more real. 

   In conclusion, the lives of an average teenager in a suburban town in the 50’s were either really conservative, or complete anarchy. Maybe that depends on the family values and the setting but either way I’d really love to know which was more common. A few of my peers happen to have podcasts on teen lives in the 50’s. Check out Ben Dinh and Alex Veitch’s blogs and podcasts!

Thanks for reading!