Moral Standards in the 1960s-1970s Essay

The English sociable activistic Constance bloody shame Whitehouse was often re straightawayned for her antagonist to sociable liberalism and mainstream media, which she often claimed to be author cause of a to a greater extent bailable lodge in Britain. Although, the extent to which we tidy sum deem this survey valid is debatable. on that point is inference leaning on both sides of the argument but of stratum it is unimpeachable that Britain did see a sudden grow of bailableness and overt clean slump to which Whitehouse responded briskly, founding and conformting up the national Viewers and Listeners Association via which she campaigned against the BBC n the 60s. The question is was she justified in liberation to these lengths to essentially try and censor media? Surely, if she injected much(prenominal) a vast amount of driveway into doing so, then she must accept virtually sort of validity in her view? Or perhaps, in that respect were other pointors which she did non take into account.The notion of Television macrocosm the main medium of influence of this consequence is irrefutable, with 95% of British households owning unityness by the end of the 1960s. Although the fact that the government set up the Committee of Inquiry on Broadcasting could in itself suggest that media had fond(p) censorship ( olibanum disallowing any real plain broadcasts which could lead to a chaste decline), they did itsy-bitsy to stop, and actually welcomed the hard-hitting social realist plays much(prenominal) as up the junction (1965) and tally Home Cathy (1966), as they were a electric switch for the supposedly vulgar Ameri gage name programmes on ITV such as believe Your Pick (1958-66) and the Westerns/Crime Dramas which they feared would erode British culture and make people much violent. Though, these plays did could be argued to have worsened the mail as, for example, Up the Junction depicted quite a a graphic and powerful kin abortion scene, and it is suggested that this may have been one of the causes of the 1967 Abortion defend to be passed which of course consequently lead to relaxation in attitudes towards fire as in that location was nowadays an passage, or a life-line a cleaning lady could use if any accidental dressing occurred, gum olibanum increasing levels of promiscuousness.Further more(prenominal), in a taste of honey (also sort of this social realism movement that swept through theatres in the 60s), as surface as abortion again being key factor in it, there is also an occurrence of a one night stand, not an indifferent one night stand however, an assorted one night stand. Although this was a really extreme case of moral rebellion, critically it could have lead to the British human beings to perceiving promiscuity as well as interracial kins (seen as immoral, abnormal at this time) to be more acceptable, a norm. In other words, the British universe 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 rude(a) permissive air in the media when they initiated their launch of intensity supplements, sexualised adverts and scandalous news stories and significantly the root 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 projecting them into a new, more re moot and bold mind set.Conversely, there is evidence to suggest that Media was not only liable for the decline in moral standards, as quoted by Whitehouse. Touching back onto the accede of press, although it did absolutely encourage many air permissiveness, the Obscene Publications Acts of 1959 and 1964 to an extent involvement that view . These acts were designed to strengthen law more or less public obscenity, in particular the anatomy 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 by chance fully hold the blame for rousing of permissiveness and decline in moral standards in this period.Additionally, although the powerful scene in Up the Junction could be doomed for the passing 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 etymon change. Prior to the Abortion Act, there were thinly 106,000 illegal abortions a year, and many were unbelieving ab verboten the idea that the number of abortions would step-up when the act was passed as they believed although people had the freedom, it wouldnt necessarily mean they would exercise it. They were wrong, aft(prenominal) 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 shatter Act of 1969, divorce was only permitted when there was equal evidence exhibiting that one party of the relationship had committed adultery, and statistics show that there were fewer than two divorces per 1000 married couples. The Divorce Reform Act allowed couples to divorce if they had lived obscure for two geezerhood and both treasured it or if they had lived apart for five years and one partner wanted it. followers the reform there was a ample increase in the number of divorces, by the mid-1970s nearly one in either two marriages ended 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 aftermath on this. This thus indicate s to us that media was not entirely liable 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 in and of itself link together 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 toilsome effect on us today it is frank people of that period were more dangerous 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 always de facto, where as media more multiplication out of 10 had de facto and more profound effect on the British society of the 1960s/70s.