# Things that used to be tacky that are now normal **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 2, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197 "2015-12-02T06:55:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/21 "2015-12-02T18:10:42Z")
Visible bra straps - still tacky, but I see a lot of it. Shudder. I will offer up hanging laundry on an outdoor clothesline. Used to be not done in good neighbourhoods, but now with concerns about the environment, is seen as being good for the planet. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/22 "2015-12-02T18:41:58Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I seem to remember masturbation becoming “normal” to talk about around the time Beavis & Butthead came out. Could be that it just became okay for my friends and me to talk about it humorously once we saw B&B talking about it humorously, but that’s when it lost its taboo in my experience-- early 90s. I remember that too, but I always just assumed that it was part and parcel of a bunch of college kids living together in a co-ed dorm away from their parents for the first time. I figured that stuff like that came up because it wasn’t ever talked about at home with the parents, but we were “enlightened” relative to them and could talk about such things. Apparently it was indicative of a society-wide trend and I had no idea… And maybe it’s just me, but it seems like various forms of public cussing and cursing were considered tacky and lower class when I was a kid (1970s-1980s), but nowadays, people cuss out in the open around children, and even wear shirts with “FUCK” written on them in big letters. And nobody cares in the least. That’s something that in my book that’s gone from tacky to normal, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/23 "2015-12-02T19:11:34Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I seem to remember masturbation becoming “normal” to talk about around the time Beavis & Butthead came out. Could be that it just became okay for my friends and me to talk about it humorously once we saw B&B talking about it humorously, but that’s when it lost its taboo in my experience-- early 90s. Women masturbating, too - that’s new. Well, of course it’s not _new_ - there are Classical Greek texts that talk about women using olivewood dildos - but the open references to it in popular culture are. I can still remember how shocked I was by an episode of _Murphy Brown_ in which a character made a joke about it: “There are two things I don’t know about my wife - how she votes, and why she calls the showerhead ‘Steve’.” > [@bump](#): > > I remember that too, but I always just assumed that it was part and parcel of a bunch of college kids living together in a co-ed dorm away from their parents for the first time. I figured that stuff like that came up because it wasn’t ever talked about at home with the parents, but we were “enlightened” relative to them and could talk about such things. > > Apparently it was indicative of a society-wide trend and I had no idea… > And maybe it’s just me, but it seems like various forms of public cussing and cursing were considered tacky and lower class when I was a kid (1970s-1980s), but nowadays, people cuss out in the open around children, and even wear shirts with “FUCK” written on them in big letters. And nobody cares in the least. That’s something that in my book that’s gone from tacky to normal, I think. On the other hand, when I was a boy in the '70s, my friends and I threw around words like _faggot_, _jungle bunny_, and _queer_ all the time, without sanction. Linguistic taboos haven’t disappeared, just shifted. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > My personal favorite. If folks knew how clean their seat was they’d be wearing a space suit, not short-shorts & a sports bra. > > Not that I have anything against short-shorts & a sports bra. On the right person. 🙂 ::Blushes shyly:: Why, **LSL Guy** , I didn’t think you’d noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/24 "2015-12-02T20:33:21Z")
> [@brainstall](#): > > Visible bra straps - still tacky, but I see a lot of it. I was going to post “bra straps” too. Remember the trend in the early 2000’s of letting the elastic on your thong show past your pants? Also “whale tail”? ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/25 "2015-12-02T20:50:30Z")
I am reminded of an episode of Dowton Abbey where Lord Grantham wore a tuxedo to dinner and Granny was appalled that he wasn’t wearing proper evening wear. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/26 "2015-12-02T21:41:07Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Still tacky. Same for overcoats. Nonsense. The whole thing about hats indoors has always been an East Coast thing, but I included it anyway. I explained some time back that the Eastern and Western parts of the country have always had different etiquette involving hats. > [@Hat on inside](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hat-on-inside/712349/22): > > The information comes from a book titled _Cow Country Cavalcade_, which tells about cowboying in Wyoming in the 1880’s. The author tells a story about a cowboy who made a trip back East. For some reason he didn’t want people to know he was a cowboy, so he bought another type of hat to wear. > > The first morning on the train, somebody asked him, “Where do you punch cattle?” The cowboy, somewhat astonished, asked, “How did you know I’m a cattlepuncher?” > > The reply – “Because when you got up this morning, the first thing you did was put on your hat.” > > [Catalog Record: Cow country cavalcade : eighty years of the... | HathiTrust Digital Library](http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001508942) ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/27 "2015-12-02T22:05:32Z")
There are a number of wedding-related things that used to be considered tacky, but now seem to be normal. Going way back, you didn’t used to include a reply card and envelope in the invitation because that would mean you thought the invited person was too much of a yokel to know how to write back with a response on their own writing paper. It also used to be considered tacky to have a white wedding and all the fuss if it wasn’t your first wedding. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/28 "2015-12-02T23:06:52Z")
Tattoos, especially in visible places, and facial piercings other than earlobes. Not so many years ago, having them eliminated you from the job market. Nowadays, they almost seem to be required. :rolleyes: As for bra straps, in the 1970s, women often went braless. I’d rather see straps any day of the week. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/29 "2015-12-02T23:08:57Z")
> [@Chicken\_Fingers](#): > > There are a number of wedding-related things that used to be considered tacky, but now seem to be normal. Going way back, you didn’t used to include a reply card and envelope in the invitation because that would mean you thought the invited person was too much of a yokel to know how to write back with a response on their own writing paper. > > It also used to be considered tacky to have a white wedding and all the fuss if it wasn’t your first wedding. I hope cake smashing never becomes normal. I’ve never attended a wedding, either as a guest or as a worker (when I was in college) where someone did that, but I’ve known a few people who did this, and all of them got divorced after many years of misery, if not outright abuse. We were discussing this on another website, and several women posted that while they were planning their weddings, they told their husbands that if he did that, she would walk out of the reception hall and get an annulment. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/30 "2015-12-02T23:49:28Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > I was going to post “bra straps” too. > > Remember the trend in the early 2000’s of letting the elastic on your thong show past your pants? Also “whale tail”? It is still tacky for your thong to show past your pants. It really really is. I mean, just because people are doing it doesn’t make it not tacky. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/31 "2015-12-02T23:55:45Z")
> [@brainstall](#): > > I will offer up hanging laundry on an outdoor clothesline. Used to be not done in good neighbourhoods, but now with concerns about the environment, is seen as being good for the planet. I grew up in a neighborhood where pretty much everyone hung their clothes out, and every place I lived where it was possible, I’d hang mine out. In fact, we built [a deck](http://s72.photobucket.com/user/fairychatmom/media/clothesline%20deck/P6200314_zps7598c704.jpg.html?sort=2&o=26) here specifically for my clotheslines. I never considered it tacky - but definitely thrifty. Visible bra straps - in fact any kind of undergarment deliberately displayed - is beyond tacky as far as I’m concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/32 "2015-12-03T00:30:56Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Nonsense. The whole thing about hats indoors has always been an East Coast thing, but I included it anyway. > > I explained some time back that the Eastern and Western parts of the country have always had different etiquette involving hats. The prohibition against wearing hats indoors is a Southern thing as well and people still get called out on it especially for religious or solemn events but also for outdoor rituals like the singing of the national anthem during a Friday night high school football game. Many people look down on it even the most casual circumstances as well and won’t allow that type of behavior in their home because they see it as a sign of disrespect. The part of the South that I know best is Louisiana and extends well into East Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma so the divide, if there is one, is past the middle of the country. Many people are quite serious about that rule as well and younger people really get disciplined for it. Older people that do it are just judged as trash. I never understood the rule myself but I never wore hats so it was never an issue for me. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/33 "2015-12-03T03:20:35Z")
I’ll join the pile on about hats. It used to bother me enough that I walked out of a western wear store that had made black felt hats part of the employee uniform (“You’re all supposed to be country …and not one one your mothers told you to take your hat off when you’re inside.”) I have a life now, more or less, but I still don’t wear a hat inside. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/34 "2015-12-03T03:23:25Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > I am reminded of an episode of Dowton Abbey where Lord Grantham wore a tuxedo to dinner and Granny was appalled that he wasn’t wearing proper evening wear. Tail coats, what she probably though of as proper dinnerwear, derived from frock coats, which were formal, professional, and dignified. Tuxedo jackets, on the other hand, derived from the sack coat (the ancestor of the modern suit jacket). Sack coats were baggy (thus the name), loose-fitting, and considered informal country wear; a sack coat, matching trousers and a tie were what a man wore to go shooting or riding, before changing into tails for dinner. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/35 "2015-12-03T03:31:01Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > A sack coat, matching trousers and a tie were what a man wore to go shooting or riding, before changing into tails for dinner. Not pinks? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/36 "2015-12-03T07:03:50Z")
Breastfeeding in public? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/37 "2015-12-03T07:14:53Z")
Lobster. Back in the day it used to be something you fed to prison inmates. Tanning. Once it was a sign that you were lower class and had to work outside. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/38 "2015-12-03T08:37:59Z")
Eating while walking along the street. Even my decidedly working class parents would buy street / take-away food and bring it home, or eat it standing at the stall where they bought it. Now it seems that every third person is shoving fried chicken, burgers, sandwiches and what have you into their faces as they scurry back to the office, shedding bits of packaging in their wake too. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/39 "2015-12-03T08:47:03Z")
Conducting your personal affairs in public places! With the arrival of the cell phone, now everybody thinks it’s okay to conduct both personal and private matters while walking down the street, standing in line at the grocery, waiting for the bus. Few years back a new student moved into the multi unit across the road. Don’t know if his reception was better outside or maybe his roomies were playing their music loud. But everybody in the neighbourhood, since it was summer and windows were open, got a three hour earful of him breaking up with his girlfriends! Yipes! ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197/40 "2015-12-03T14:10:50Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Lack of foundation garments (for women and men). Ladies, that dress looks way better with Spanks underneath, unless you are 18 years old and have a perfect body. Spanks are uncomfortable. I don’t want to smoosh my internal organs together to fit into some fashion ideal. Also, my almost 38 year-old body is just fine and I will dress it the way I see fit - if you are worried by not completely toned fresh, you may avert your eyes.\* \*in the interest of equal opportunities, I won’t squeal in disgust over male nipples, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-used-to-be-tacky-that-are-now-normal/739197.md?page=3)