@crazy:That's what I mumbled at some point. Different time, different cultural background, well, lots of different things really. And you are right about size comparissons. Even in the gym, yes we all looked and compared I guess but that was it. Also at school we had exellent sex education in Germany. No holds barred, so it was pretty clear to everybody that whatever you see in the changing room had little to do with what you'd get between the sheets.
The internet not having been invented must have made a huge difference. My friends and I all relied on the smutty little pamphlets in dads bedside table and some art books that my grandfather had collected, all sparsely clad nymphs, pictures that you'd be locked up for these days seing that most of them can't have been older then about 10 or 11 at best. Not that any of them showed their genitalia, even the budding breast were mostly obscured by thin veils to cloth but that was how we got our first idea about 'what the other half' looks like.
Puberty also definitively set in a lot later back in the early 70s, giving you more of a chance to grow up first.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am the last person to ever claim some rubbish about 'the good old days'. They never existed, they are purely a figment of our imagination with your brains blanking out the nasty bits and featuring the good times. A bit like a movie trailer really but you'll experience that yourself one of these days.
But at the end of the day I think it is the internet that has changed young peoples perception of themselves most, plus the abundance of body image focussed magazines, which these days pretty much includes everything, even the latest knitware mag for your 50+ generation.
Totally unrealistic, completely vain and unachievable. That's todays life, just so all kinds of industries can sell you more useless crap that in a fair proportion of the products sold is actually bad for you. Like skin creams for 20 year olds or such nonsense.
Thank goodness my wifes view on this is pretty much the same as mine. She has only one obsession and that is colouring her hair which started to turn grey at the tender age of 23. I couldn't care less, hair colour doesn't make her any different. But so be it, if it keeps her happy.
I've never had that hunters urge to go chasing women. I knew from pretty early on that there were so many things out there that I'd rather do then spend my time in a pub, club or disco, chatting up women. Found the whole thing rather tedious to be honest. Mind you, I've always kind of hated filling space with smalltalk anyway.
I'd rather spend my time with one of the bands I was playing with at the time. Getting the songs right, working on new songs, improving the stage act and practice my lousy singing voice to at least do for the chorus and maybe msome background oohs and aahs and stuff. You can tell, no lack of self confidence there, ever, I was far more interested in having my picture on the front page of the local fishwrapper after a successful gig.
Maybe Alfred Adler, the psychoanalyst, was right when he wrote his book on compensation. He wrote a number of books about compensating for deficiencies in personality development. Not sure how he is ranked in todays world of psychology but I found his writings rather engaging at the time.
Last edited by hoverfly; 06-02-2012 at 08:04 AM.
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