Moral Standards in the 1960s-1970s Essay

The English social activist Constance Mary Whiteho ingestion was often renowned for her opposition to social liberalism and mainstream media, which she often claimed to be root cause of a more(prenominal) permissive society in Britain. Although, the extent to which we can deem this view valid is debatable. There is evidence leaning on both sides of the argument barely of course it is unquestionable that Britain did see a sudden uprising of permissiveness and overt moral decline to which Whitehouse responded briskly, founding and setting up the National viewing audience and Listeners Association via which she campaigned against the BBC n the 60s. The question is was she justified in going to these lengths to essentially try and censor media? Surely, if she injected such a vast amount of political campaign into doing so, then she must have some sort of validity in her view? Or perhaps, there were other factors which she did not take into account.The notion of boob tube being the m ain medium of influence of this period is irrefutable, with 95% of British house cut backs owning one by the end of the 1960s. Although the fact that the government set up the committal of Inquiry on Broadcasting could in itself bespeak that media had partial censorship (thus disallowing any real explicit broadcasts which could lead to a moral decline), they did little to stop, and rattling welcomed the hard-hitting social realist plays such as up the junction (1965) and Come Home Cathy (1966), as they were a replacement for the supposedly vulgar American mien programmes on ITV such as Take Your Pick (1958-66) and the Westerns/Crime Dramas which they feared would erode British culture and make pile more violent. Though, these plays did could be argued to have worse the situation as, for example, Up the Junction depicted quite a graphic and powerful home abortion scene, and it is suggested that this may have been one of the causes of the 1967 Abortion turn to be passed which o f course consequently lead to relaxation in attitudes towards sex as there was now an passage, or a life-line a woman could use if any accidental impregnation occurred, thus increasing levels of promiscuousness.Furthermore, in a taste of honey (also part of this social realism movement that swept with theatres in the 60s), as well as abortion again being key factor in it, there is also an occurrence of a one night stand, not an ordinary one night stand however, an interracial one night stand. Although this was a very extreme strip of moral rebellion, critically it could have lead to the British public to perceiving promiscuity as well as interracial relationships (seen as immoral, abnormal at this time) to be more acceptable, a norm. In other words, the British public would in theory be bellowing if she can do it, why cant I? .The Press also have a part to play in this they contributed largely to a new-fashioned permissive air in the media when they initiated their delegate of colour supplements, sexualised adverts and scandalous news stories and significantly the first female nipple was published by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch who believed this would help the circulation of his paper, The Sun. This conveys the extent to which media was now overtly promoting permissiveness, and could suggest that this directly influenced a more permissive society as the public were fully exposed to these new developments which eased them into a new, more open and unmingled mind set.Conversely, there is evidence to suggest that Media was not only prudent for the decline in moral standards, as quoted by Whitehouse. Touching back onto the orbit of press, although it did absolutely encourage some air permissiveness, the Obscene Publications r popines of 1959 and 1964 to an extent conflict that view. These acts were designed to strengthen law around public obscenity, in fussy the publication of obscene articles and materials used in them. This could thus suggest that ther e were in fact some restrictions on media, and that they couldnt possibly fully hold the blame for arousal of permissiveness and decline in moral standards in this period.Additionally, although the powerful scene in Up the Junction could be blamed for the termination of the Abortion Act in 1967,it is commonly known that it only eased the passage of it, and it was primarily David Steels campaign that led the way to this debatably ingrained change. Prior to the Abortion Act, there were approximately 106,000 illegal abortions a year, and many were sceptical about the idea that the number of abortions would increase when the act was passed as they believed although people had the freedom, it wouldnt necessarily mean they would exercise it. They were wrong, after a year in 1968 the number of abortions per annum rose by 35,000 to 141,000 a year. This strongly suggests that the Abortion Act itself influenced a more permissive and unmoral society as it offered more freedom to the public i n regards to sex and promiscuity.Prior to the passing of the dissever Act of 1969, break was only permitted when there was sufficient evidence exhibiting that one party of the relationship had committed adultery, and statistics show that there were few than two divorces per 1000 married couples. The Divorce Reform Act allowed couples to divorce if they had lived apart for two years and both cute it or if they had lived apart for five years and one partner wanted it. Following the reform there was a huge increase in the number of divorces, by the mid-1970s nearly one in every two marriages end in divorce. Although it could be argued that this was due to the growing independence of women, its hard to deny that the act had a large printing on this. This thus indicates to us that media was not entirely responsible for the lack or decline of moral standards as legislation such as this, did essentially promote more promiscuity as it gave married couples the freedom to split up and do as they please.In analysing the range of factors, we can conclude that Mary Whitehouses view that the media was responsible for the morale decline of the 60s and 70s was somewhat valid, as there are a spectrum of sources and pieces of evidence that intrinsically link unneurotic and in turn paint a picture where the British society are heavily influenced by media. This was perhaps due to fact that the public at this time, and still to this day, are heavily consumed by the media and are enthralled in its controversy, and although it may not have so much of a profound effect on us today it is obvious people of that period were more vulnerable to it as just coming out of a period of nonindulgence and slight deprivation, more likely than not they were seeking for something new something fresh, something that kept up with the social norms of other major influences such as America- and perhaps unfortunately, these new trends often entailed social rebellion and permissiveness. And although legislation had a part to play in it, this only ensured de jure change, not always de facto, where as media more times out of 10 had de facto and more profound effect on the British society of the 1960s/70s.