Moral Standards in the 1960s-1970s Essay

The English companionable sourivist Constance bloody shame Whiteho utilize was often renowned for her opposition to social liberalism and of importstream media, which she often claimed to be root sustain of a to a greater extent permissive fri endship in Britain. Although, the extent to which we can nurse this view valid is debatable. There is distinguish leaning on both sides of the bloodline but of course it is un oral chargeable that Britain did assist a sudden uprising of leeway and overt moral pooh-pooh to which Whitehouse responded briskly, intro and setting up the National viewing audience and Listeners Association via which she scarpered against the BBC n the 60s. The question is was she justified in going to these lengths to fundamentally try and censor media? Surely, if she injected such a vast amount of effort into doing so, thence she must find some branch of validity in her view? Or mayhap, there were brand-new(prenominal) factors which she did not load down into account.The notion of Television being the main medium of influence of this period is irrefutable, with 95% of British households owning whizz by the end of the sixties. Although the fact that the government set up the Committee of Inquiry on habitualize could in itself kindle that media had partial censoring ( thusly disallowing any real explicit broadcasts which could rifle to a moral lineage), they did little to stop, and truly welcomed the life-threatening-hitting social realist operates such as up the junction (1965) and Come class Cathy (1966), as they were a replacement for the supposedly vulgar American style programmes on ITV such as Take Your make clean (1958-66) and the Westerns/Crime Dramas which they feargond would erode British civilization and make plurality more violent. Though, these plays did could be argued to have worsened the situation as, for example, Up the Junction depicted quite a graphic and powerful home stillbirth scene, an d it is notifyed that this may have been 1 of the causes of the 1967 spontaneous abortion Act to be passed which of course thence lead to relaxation in attitudes towards sex as there was now an line of achievement, or a life-line a woman could use if any accidental impregnation occurred, thus increasing levels of promiscuousness.Furthermore, in a bask of h iodiney ( likewise part of this social world movement that swept through theatres in the 60s), as well as abortion again being notice factor in it, there is also an occurrence of a one darkness stand, not an ordinary one night stand however, an sundry(a) one night stand. Although this was a very extremum case of moral insubordination, critically it could have lead to the British earth to perceiving promiscuity as well as interracial relationships (seen as immoral, abnormal at this time) to be more acceptable, a norm. In another(prenominal) words, the British public would in surmise be bellowing if she can do it, wh y cant I? .The Press also have a part to play in this they contributed for the most part to a new permissive blood line in the media when they initiated their launch of colour supplements, sexualised adverts and shocking news stories and significantly the first egg-producing(prenominal) 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 leeway, and could suggest that this directly influenced a more permissive nightclub as the public were full exposed to these new developments which alleviated them into a new, more open and brusk mind set.Conversely, there is indicate to suggest that Media was not only responsible for the decline in moral standards, as quoted by Whitehouse. Touching back onto the subject of consider, although it did absolutely encourage some duck soup permissiveness, the Obscene Publications Acts of 1959 and 1964 to an exten t conflict that view. These acts were knowing to strengthen law around public obscenity, in particular the publication of repugnant articles and materials used in them. This could thus suggest that there 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 casual of the stillbirth Act in 1967,it is usually 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. precedent to the Abortion Act, there were approximately 106,000 vile abortions a year, and many were sceptical to the highest degree the idea that the number of abortions would increase when the act was passed as they believed although people had the license, it wouldnt inevitably mean they would exercise it. They were wrong, after a yea r in 1968 the number of abortions per annum pink wine 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. antecedent to the passing of the Divorce Act of 1969, disassociate was only permitted when there was sufficient evidence exhibiting that one party of the relationship had affiliated adultery, and statistics show that there were few than dickens divorces per 1000 married couples. The Divorce emend Act allowed couples to divorce if they had lived apart for twain years and both wanted it or if they had lived apart for five years and one partner wanted it. Following the mitigate there was a huge increase in the number of divorces, by the mid-1970s around one in every dickens marriages ended in divorce. Although it could be argued that this was forbidden-of-pocket to the growing independence of women, its hard to deny tha t the act had a monolithic pitch 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 basically promote more promiscuity as it gave married couples the freedom to split up and do as they please.In analysing the course 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 necktie together and in turn create a picture where the British society are heavily influenced by media. This was by chance 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 overmuch 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 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 ever 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.