Betty: High School 2021 A.D. (originally published in 1997)

[demmiblue]

Link to tweet

[brush]

1. It was prophetic, only thing, we've found out that kids need school...

on-site school for socialization and development.

[crickets]

2. That's a bit eerie. nt

[tblue37]

3. Yeah--those boots!

[crickets]

4. I was noticing the big eyeball on the wall. 😄

The camera and CRT (ha!) are huge, but the exact idea is there. It's a little uncanny.

[tblue37]

5. Yeah, and the analogue clock!

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. When did shoulder "covers" (is there a proper word, apart from for armour?) become "the future"?

Was it Flash Gordon or something? Reinforced by the Jetsons? We got to shoulder pads, encouraged by Dynasty et al, in the 80s, but I can't think of a time when fashion included, for men or women, a stiff bit of an outer jacket that extends beyond the actual shoulder. So why is it such a common trope for "our wonderful future"?

OK, I searched, and it seems Flash Gordon didn't go in for the shoulder extensions (and neither did Buck Rogers). They did like giving Flash a sort of wide collar that was separate from his main top garment, or patterning the garment with the equivalent:





The shoulder pauldrons (the armorial term) may have come from H.G. Wells' "Things to Come":



"In the future the world will be ruled by stiff philosophers decked out in gowns and big shoulder pads."