Why is during the 80's and 90's men normally went barefoot more than women who usually had shoes on on tv?

Answer 1

I do not think your assertion is accurate. First, the 1980s and 1990s refers to 20 years of TV. During those two decades, there were hundreds and hundreds of programs on the air, on both the broadcast networks and the rapidly growing cable channels. Many of these programs were detective shows, police shows, and mystery shows, and the male characters were generally fighting crime rather than going barefoot ("Hill Street Blues" an award winning police show from the 1980s is a fine example). There were also medical dramas set in hospitals and it is rare for a surgeon to be operating while barefoot ("St. Elsewhere" is a good example of a 1980s ensemble medical drama, and "E.R." a good example from the 1990s). Legal dramas were also very popular (take a look at "L.A. Law" as an example of the genre-- the show ran from 1986 to 1994). Even comedies reflected family life, which meant the men wore shoes or slippers around the house, and at other times, they dressed in whatever way was appropriate for the job they held.

You may be watching a channel that offers a lot of reruns from the 80s and 90s, and some of what you are seeing may be programs that are set in Hawaii or in places where the sun and surf are part of the plot. But the totality of programs from those two decades does not show that men were "normally" barefoot and women were expected to wear shoes.