Moral Standards in the 1960s-1970s Essay

The English social activist Constance Mary Whitehouse was very much reat oncened for her opposition to social liberalism and mainstream media, which she often claimed to be root coif of a more than(prenominal) permissive friendship in Britain. Although, the effect to which we screw deem this view valid is debatable. There is evidence leaning on both sides of the argument but of course it is unquestionable that Britain did see a sudden uprising of permissiveness and overt moral lower to which Whitehouse responded briskly, institution and setting up the National Viewers 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 ostracise media? Surely, if she injected such a vast amount of effort into doing so, then she moldiness become some sort of validity in her view? Or perhaps, at that place were other factors which she did non take into account.The notion of Televis ion cosmos the main medium of influence of this period is irrefutable, with 95% of British households owning cardinal by the end of the 1960s. Although the fact that the government set up the delegacy of Inquiry on Broadcasting could in itself fire that media had partial security review (thus disallowing any real explicit broadcasts which could lead to a moral decline), they did petty(a) to stop, and actually welcomed the hard-hitting social realist plays such as up the join (1965) and Come Home Cathy (1966), as they were a replacement for the supposedly unrefined American style programmes on ITV such as Take Your clean (1958-66) and the Westerns/Crime Dramas which they feared would erode British culture and make wad more violent. Though, these plays did could be argued to have worsened the situation as, for example, Up the adjunction interpret quite a graphic and powerful home abortion scene, and it is suggested that this may have been champion of the causes of the 19 67 Abortion Act to be passed which of course so lead to relaxation in attitudes towards sex as there was now an passage, or a life-line a woman could use if any inadvertent impregnation occurred, thus increasing levels of promiscuity.Furthermore, in a taste of beloved (also part of this social realism movement that swept through 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 point case of moral rising, critically it could have lead to the British popular to perceiving promiscuity as well as interracial family relationships (seen as immoral, defective at this time) to be more acceptable, a norm. In other words, the British in the domain eye(predicate) 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 boastfully to a y come o nhful permissive air in the media when they initiated their launch of colour supplements, sexualised adverts and scandalous intelligence stories and significantly the first female nipple was published by media office 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 undefended to these new developments which eased them into a new, more open and bold intellect set.Conversely, there is evidence to suggest that Media was not only obligated for the decline in moral standards, as quoted by Whitehouse. Touching back onto the cognitive content of press, although it did absolutely encourage some air permissiveness, the Obscene Publications Acts of 1959 and 1964 to an extent conflict that view. These acts were designed to strengthen law around public obscenity, in particular t he publication of obscene articles and materials used in them. This could thus suggest that there were in fact some restrictions on media, and that they couldnt mayhap 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 passing of the Abortion Act in 1967,it is ordinarily known that it only eased the passage of it, and it was primarily David Steels campaign that led the way to this debatably radical change. Prior to the Abortion Act, there were approximately 106,000 illegal abortions a year, and many were sceptical about the brain that the estimate of abortions would increase when the act was passed as they believed although people had the freedom, it wouldnt needfully 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 in regards to sex and promiscuity.Prior to the passing of the Divorce Act of 1969, break up 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 matrimonial couples. The Divorce Reform Act allowed couples to divorce if they had lived apart for two old age and both wanted it or if they had lived apart for five years and one partner wanted it. Following the reform there was a colossal increase in the number of divorces, by the mid-1970s nearly one in every two marriages ended in divorce. Although it could be argued that this was due to the festering independence of women, its hard to deny that the act had a large effect 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 wed couples the freedom to split up and do as they please.In analysing the draw 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 in concert 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 beguiled 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 Austerity 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 study influences such as America- and pe rhaps 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.