Ripped denims, fluorescent sweatshirts, jheri curls and gravity-defying styles that soaked up hair spray and compromised the ozone layer. The 1980s was a decade of extremes and eccentricities. It’s understandable why some regard it as an era they would rather forget, but for many who are 40-plus, it was where we came of age. “The Cosby Show” was essential viewing. Eddie Murphy ruled the box office. My teenage years were dominated by Right On! magazine, wall posters of DeBarge and New Edition or trying to get the hair to look like Lisa Bonet’s of A Different World.

Like other trends from a bygone age, the jheri curls disappeared, the bright colors faded and some musicians fell silent, professionally or otherwise. But what resonated with me as a young adult were the images of powerful women that dominated stages, screens and airwaves.
My mother first modeled traits of assertiveness and independence were first modeled for me, but it was empowering to grow up with entertainment that featured women who sought love and enjoyed relationships, but also took car of business and took no mess.

So although there may have been plenty to cringe about in the 1980s, that decade’s trademark tackiness has nothing on the regressive cultural messages that young women are bombarded with today. I can’t elaborate on all of them, but I’ll mention the ones that get perpetual side-eye and keep us parents censuring certain networks, award shows and radio stations on a regular basis.

1. EXPOSED BODY PARTS EQUALING EMPOWERMENT: I am not implying that there wasn’t any sexual innuendo when I was coming up: Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Chaka Khan wore plenty of eye-popping outfits back in the day and Lady GaGa’s obvious muse, Grace Jones, wasn’t a wallflower. But they also demonstrated what most modern entertainers lack— balance. Even if they had the killer legs, enviable cleavage or generous backsides to show off, their genuine talent got more attention than the physical appearance.

2. MISBEHAVIOR MAKING DOLLARS: It’s a given that success can bring enemies and that not everyone is going to like how you get down, but the “who’s gon’ check me, Boo?” mentality is way out of hand when a bar brawl or ‘Twitter wars’ can generate the participants an entire revenue stream. In real life, class and discretion can open doors when being rude slams them shut, lessons that can be hard to teach our kids when they’re surrounded by a culture teaching the exact opposite.

3. PERMANENT DECISIONS,TEMPORARY DUDES: Earlier this month, actress and former “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks broke up with her boyfriend, R&B newbie Sage the Gemini, who reportedly cheated on her after she invested tens of thousands of dollars into buying his house (?). And just under a month ago, singer and actor Ne-Yo married his pregnant girlfriend Crystal Renay, a woman he started dating months after he broke up with his first fiancee, radio personality and reality show star Monyetta Shaw, via Instagram (!). The baby seems to be an ironic development, considering that Ne-Yo insisted that Shaw have a permanent procedure done after their son and daughter was born since he was allegedly done having kids.

Young ladies should learn early on not to make life-altering decisions for a man who may or may not be with them to share in those consequences. Hits from the 80’s like Janet Jacksons’s “What Have You Don For Me Lately,” Annie Lennox’ and Aretha Franklin’s “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” and Gwen Guthrie’s “Ain’t Nothing Going On But The Rent” taught our generation that men needed to come correct to have our love and attention, not audition us year after year for the ‘wife’ title without extending the same devotions or sacrifices in return.

Questionable fashions aside, seems like there’s nothing’s wrong with reviving a little ‘old school’ now and then—-maybe more of those 1980s relics are due for a comeback, no?