As it was physically harder for a woman in “proper” clothes to do something than it was for a man in “proper” clothes (which was a loose fitting suit), it fueled the sexist tendencies to make one fierce come back before lying dormant for a time. This historical pattern still has not seen a close. Even in modern day women’s apparel is used to fuel sexism. Revealing clothes are subject to attack, and in worst case scenarios shift the blame for sex crimes on to the victim, while fully covering clothes are often seen as prudish and old fashioned. Even dress codes form rules that apply far more towards women than men. Recent movements and public sentiment indicate that there is a decent chance that this problem will be resolved soon, ending an aspect of a negative part of American culture for good.
The radio became prevalent in the 1920s, which allowed for the first truly universal, and bizarre, trend in America, flagpole sitting. Literally just sitting on a flag pole. This aspect of culture was one of many ridiculous and time wasting factors of the 20s. As the economy grew based on speculation and credit, more people thought they had more money and did less work. The flagpole sitting inspired this idle crowd to become infatuated with a potentially deadly pastime, one which is boring if done correctly. With the choices being a windy relaxation or a sudden death, people began to do it less and less, but it was a bizarre aspect of the first popular culture, and the motives behind it can be seen in speculation. Either get slightly richer, or crash the economy. However, clearly the US has learned since then and has neither done incredibly reckless hobbies or crashed the economy ever again. In all seriousness, this trend essentially put down the baseline of danger for most American trends.
During the depression of the thirties, people had time to kill, and could afford to do it riding bikes around inside for six days. The winner was whoever had the most laps, and the losers tended to be the ones who passed out and were run over early on. In a time characterized by poverty, the popular culture took what people already had, and found something to offer as a fun distraction. These events had food, jazz, and consequently a lot of spectators. People of this time always talk about the terrors, but talk about the fun days spent distracting themselves from reality. This escapism was fueled by the ability to do things like ride bikes, fueled by gasoline. Fads used as a source of escape are common in stressful time, but are less common in modern day as people have access to so many different sources and types of entertainment to use for escapism.
The 1940s were the height of WWII, as such there was a trend on the warfront and homefront. The warfront saw “Kilroy was here” a bizarre doodle which was spread with the allies as a joke, because Kilroy always beat them there. This, along with other army jokes, served to create an environment which would alleviate the tensions of being in the biggest most deadly war ever. Part of the joke was that Kilroy was a spy for the Allies, which increased people’s fear of being spied upon as there was always a reminder of that possibility graphitized on some wall nearby. The homefront saw goldfish swallowing, where someone would swallow as many goldfish whole as possible. This terrible trend is essentially about proving one’s self, the popular culture on the homefront was about rationing, doing your part, promoting democracy, and for some reason, in the time where animal activists and healthcare personnel were busy, people swallowed goldfish to prove how tough they were. This helped the mentality of American invincibility, in a time where the citizens should have thought the impoverished nation anything but invincible. Modern mirrors, such as the cinnamon challenge (or any trend that has the word challenge in it), are examples of the desire to prove who is the strongest, and the more prevalent the challenge, the more people compete.
Coming out of the war and into the Cold War, the fifties housed the best trend yet, hunkering. While there are various ways to hunker, the general idea was to squat and talk with friends. This trend was used to promote the popular culture of normality and conformity in the 1950s. As people squatted together, talked together, and hung out in suburbia, it became a normal way for people to get to know each other. The idea of easily getting to know one another fed the desire to conform so that you could be easier to know, and so that the hunkering session would end with everyone happy.