What Really Happened in the Nineties?

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Robert Carlyle takes us back to moments we missed in the '90s that shaped the world today.

Cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics. How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle is here to show us that we did. And it happened in the '90s.

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What Really Happened in the Nineties?: 3. Gender

3. Gender

BBC Radio 4 - What Really Happened in the Nineties?, 3. Gender

Lads, ladettes and David Beckham in a sarong

What the fuss about David Beckham wearing a sarong said about gender politics in the 90s, the decade that gave us the New Lad and its equally sexist upgrade, the Ladette.

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the 90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the 90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 3: Gender

When Harry Styles donned a dress for the cover of Vogue Magazine it caused a storm in an online teacup. Some commentators said it was the end of masculinity as we know it. Pretty much the same thing was said when David Beckham wore a sarong in public in 1998. Robert Carlyle asks if gender politics has changed much in three decades, as he takes us back to the era of the New Lad and Ladette. Along the way he hears from journalist Sean O'Hagan, who coined the term New Lad, Natasha Walter, author of The New Feminism and Professor Helen McCarthy.

Producer: Stephen Hughes
Actors: Matthew Durkan and Alexandra Hannant
Sound Designer/Composer: Phil Channell
Consultant: Professor Helen McCarthy

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What Really Happened in the Nineties?

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