With Kavanaugh in the news seen a few takes on \u201cwhat (handsiness/\u201ctaking advantage\u201d/date rape) meant in the early \u201880s\u201d that key off period teen movies - Grease, Revenge of the Nerds, Sixteen Candles
Know what I haven\u2019t seen mentioned but\u2019s pretty interesting to think about in that context? Back to the Future
Where it\u2019s clearly presented as a wrong, but specifically a wrong of already-obsolete 50s masculinity in the figure of Biff.
And a matter between male peers \u2013 it\u2019s an explicit, central plot point that interrupting Biff\u2019s attack on Lorraine with violence is how Marty\u2019s dad becomes a proper man, who earns a happy marriage with her
A proper new-model man, not a businessman or engineer but a media creative, not a swaggering jock or cringing geek but a smooth tennis player
And then the ultimate resolution to the saga where Marty himself earns his girlfriend by giving up his hothead ways and not getting in car racing dick measuring contests, while Doc finds an intelligent professional woman to be his equal while also bearing him 2 sons
That\u2019s pretty much the story of Gen X pop-masculinity right there
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