*Discussion Problems In Group Living*: Vintage Instructional Films

Last month, I revealed my thirst for bingewatching turn-of-the-1980's women's prison series, Prisoner. My viewing hall of shame continues with

Vintage Instructional Films

Exhibit 1: Giving voice to your cruelest Inner Critic. Barbara must navigate 1954 with social anxiety and a massive stain on her sweater. Give up, Barbara. "You added NOTHING to that conversation!"

(Unaltered flick Habit Patterns is here:

Is it supposed to be a sewing class for nuns?)

Film buff trivia corner
The actress who played the hapless, dogtrotting Barbara here went on to play the hapless, headbanded Barbra of 1968's Night of the Living Dead!

With zombies in her fate and one less letter A in her name, I guess it really was a little late for tears, wasn't it, Barb(a)ra?

Exhibit 2: Act Natural, you paranoiac! Get it together, Sarah Jane.

The most urgent existential question facing you now, Sarah, Sarah Jane, is:

WILL THE GANG ACCEPT YOU???

The young lady acting out all of the worst fears of being a Typical Outlier in 1951...

Goes on to star in 1958 as Exhibit 3: Overcompensating only makes everyone hate you more!

Why don't you quit studying and learn to carouse with boys who maul you for a spot on the dancefloor, you snob? Why, it's because your father spoke condescendingly at you, calling you "Pumpkin" when you poured out the plot of your future masterpiece, "The Fountainhead", little miss teenage Ayn Rand! Grab a little earthiness, and maybe you can catch yourself a husband before your salad days are over.

Exhibit 4: The budding young investigative journalist exposes crony politics, and this is the thanks she gets?

That's right, our Outsider/Snob is also the Laura Loomer of the 1955 United Student Body. She's not afraid to put closed-door insider machinations on blast. Somehow, no one seems to appreciate her, and now we have to take a quiz on how to handle her kind. Remember, this is filmed long after the nag's bridle went out of fashion. Electroconvulsive therapy and icepick lobotomies were certainly just peaking in vogue, so mind your tongue, Gossip!

Exhibit 5: The Ideal Woman ingratiates for dates!

Oh yes, Kay is ready to "do the dirty work" anytime. Plus she makes sammiches. Ooooooo-KAY!

Thanks for taking a ride on the warped time machine called Discussion Problems In Group Living, from the halcyon days of post-war social engineering. When proper girls knew how to pair the right skirt with the right sweater, and to intuit that everyone else is ordering chocolate ice CREAM cones, not rootbeer.

End of transmission.

Love,cat

@creationofcare

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