Anyone who's come into Merge Towers recently may have had a chuckle or been quietly embarrassed by a stack of old People Magazines on our book shelf. When resident fashion sensei, Steph Mountzouris came by with a bunch of her dad's People Magazines from 1983 everyone in the office had a laugh at the 80's stylings and poor-taste humour. But on closer inspection (yes I was flicking through for boobs) I really began to appreciate what a fantastic little time-capsule these mags represented.

The images throuhgout this story are taken from just one jam-packed December 7, 1982 edition of the weekly People Magazine and what revealed itself through my intense glossy page snapping, was a portrait of a gentleman.

Compared to today's "men's magazines" this issue of People only had a couple of featured women. Sure there may have been a nipple or three but it was all in context... well, the context of People anyway. However what I really enjoyed was the relaxed feeling the magazine had.

Cigarette  and booze adverts harken back to heady days where legislators were actually making appropriate changes to strengthen the economy and our national interest rather than legislating against well-worn vices.

 
A man reclining with his cigar and "Barter Memory Phone" is happy to call his mate Rupert on "auto" and let him know that he's "Got a new Barter memory Phone. Set (him) back a measly $34.70" and he can "Hold it in one hand, dial in one hand and use auto re-dial when (his) head is somewhere else". How elaborate is this ad?? People don't read any more, let alone read adverts!

And it's not all business, there's something for the adolescent in all of us with a double page feature on the, now deceased, Pope John Paull II being made a Marvel Comic Book hero! On another page, two ads side by side: (a) "Meditation: The Psychic Bridge to the Inner Mind" and (b) the pornographic VHS company Electic Blue's latest release starring "the insatiable Marilyn Chambers".

Perhaps it's because I'm reading The Great Gatsby and am quite sympathetic to Nick Carraway's take on the "well-rounded man" that I feel a pang of regret that our society is much more tightly controlled but much less diverse. That there would be in no way, shape or form, a man reading a skin magazine in 2009 that would respond to both an ad for porn as readily as an ad for inner peace.

We've got more rules than ever to protect us but what exactly is being protected?

- josh