2.7 Social and Cultural Change Flashcards
Mass Media - TV
. More people had TVs after Queen’s coronation
. 1961: 75% had a TV, by 1971: 91%
. ITV: 1955, advertising straight to living room
. BBC2: April 1964, so BBC1 could be more populist
. BBC2: 1st channel to broadcast regular colour TV shows
Hugh Greene
. Director General of the BBC in 1960
. He had money diverted from radio to TV: guidelines on nudity and swearing were revised; a new style of news presentation; and more popular programmes were commissioned
Mass Media - Radio
. Radio survived due to car and portable radios
. Programmes could be targeted at certain audiences
. Start of 1960s: 3 BBC radio programmes
. Nightly broadcasts of pop from Radio Luxembourg + 1964 ‘pirate stations’, after ban, Radio 1 started
. Radio 1 made use of pirate DJs eg Tony Blackburn
Mass Media - Newspapers
. The Sun launched 1964, replacing the Daily Herald
. The Sun set out to be the “only newspaper born of the age we live in.”
. 1969: the Sun was bought by the Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch: he associated it with permissive attitudes and its popularity grew
Leisure Activities - Home
. More leisure time by 60s: fewer worked weekends
. Home remained centre of leisure: extended by TV
. By 1969, TV accounted for 23% of leisure time
. DIY and gardening more popular
. Knitting thrived, could watch TV at same time
Leisure Activities - Events
. Live theatre shrank rapidly, especially outside major cities
. Attendance at football matches and other ‘live’ events also suffered
Leisure Activities - Transportation
. Car ownership accelerated rapidly in the 1960s
. Bus, coach, + train travel declined as car use grew to be 77% of journeys by 1974
. Tech improvements made cars more affordable
. Cars allowed travel to shopping centres, leisure facilities, and activities from caravaning to golf and sailing built up a devoted following
Leisure Activities - Holiday
. 1960s: leisure travel turned into mass tourism
. Britannia Airways, 1964: flights to Spain, Malta
. Costs of air travel meant mainly middle class went
. Package holidays still new by end of 60s: grown from under 4% of all holidays in ‘66 to 8.4% in ‘71
. Travel abroad injected continental flavour in British tastes: restaurants and wine bars appeared
Scientific Developments
. 1960s time of great development in science and tech
. ‘61: 1st person went to space, ‘69: US land on moon
. Labour govt made scientific developments key aim
. Anglo-French partnership continued to develop the supersonic Concorde aircraft
. The Post Office Tower, then the tallest building in Britain, opened ‘65, improving telecommunications
Censorship
. Playwrights experimented with new styles
. New plays needed a license from Lord Chamberlain’s Office, could demand removal of immoral content
. The Royal Court Theatre London, centre of innovation
Early Morning
. Controversial play by Edward Bond
. Banned in 1967, after which the backbencher George Strauss intro’d a bill to abolish theatre censorship
. The Bill passed, 1968: Roy Jenkins + Laurence Olivier
Alfie (1966)
. British romantic comedy drama film dir Lewis Gilbert
. About a young womanising man who leads a self- centered life. He cheats on and mistreats women repeatedly, speaking directly to cam to justify his action
. First film to receive “suggested for mature audiences” classification by the Motion Picture Association of America in the US which became the modern PG rating
The Feminine Mystique
. Published in 1963, written by Betty Friedan
. Started Second Wave feminism in the US
. Argued that women had restrictive lives that left them unfulfilled
Female Education - 1960s
. Growth in women’s ed (especially in middle class)
. Women made up 28% of students in higher ed in 1970
. Girls ed still had a domestic slant: girls often left school young and got married
Women in Work - 1960s
. Few women made it to top professions
. Only 5% of women ever reached managerial work
. No shortage of jobs for women bc they could be paid less, but many were clerical/service sector roles with no prospects and poor pay
NHS Family Planning Act
. 1967
. Provided contraceptives and advice
Female Equality - 1960s
. Childminders rare in the 60s
. Private nurseries only available for wealthy
. Number of marriages ending in divorce rose
. The no. of illegitimate births rose from 5.8% in 1960 to 8.2% in 1970
. Feminist movement encouraged by articles and books
Books by Women
. Women: the Longest Revolution (1966) by Juliet Mitchell
. The Female Eunuch (1970) by Germaine Greer
‘Women’s Liberation’ groups
. Sprung up around the UK to campaign for social and economic equality for women
. A rally in Britain in 1969 led to the establishment of the Women’s National Co-ordination Committee, bringing strands of feminist movement together
The First National Women’s Liberation Conference
. Held at Ruskin College, Oxford, in Feb 1970
. Four demands were put forward:
- Equal pay
- Free contraception and abortion on request
- Equal education and job opportunities
- Free 24 hour childcare
Matrimonial Property Act
. 1970
. Established that the work of a wife, whether in paid employment or in the home, should be taken into account in divorce settlements
Equal Pay Act
. 1970
. Established the principle of equal pay for equal work, though it wasn’t reinforced until 5 years later
‘Permissive Society’
. A time of sexual liberation with changes in morals and new openness
. Critics used the term in a negative way, believing it reflected society’s moral decline
Catholic Views on the ‘Permissive Society’
. Catholic Church was hostile to contraceptive pill, arguing that it was contrary to God’s law and sinful
. Some prominent Catholics disagreed: Catholic MP Norman St John - Stevas wrote a critical essay entitled ‘The Pope, the Pill and the People’ in 1968
Permissive Ideas
. Spread by media: from ‘teen’ magazines to uncensored novels
. Taboo subjects were now discussed in books, on radio, and TV
. By the end of the decade, STIs were on the rise, particularly in youths
Drug Culture
. Cocaine and heroin addiction was 10 times more prevalent in the first half of the 60s
. Soft drugs were more common place by end of 60s
. ‘Hippy lifestyle’ emphasising ‘free love’ and ‘flower power’ promoted drug culture
. 1970: max sentence for supplying drugs increased to 14 years imprisonment
Dangerous Drugs Act
. 1967
. Made it illegal to possess drugs e.g. cannabis and cocaine
Wootton Report
. Published 1969
. Suggested legalising soft drugs e.g. cannabis
. Rejected by Callaghan, who wanted to call a halt to the rising tide of permissiveness
Extent of Liberal Permissiveness
. Its influence on behaviour can be exaggerated
. Surveys by Michael Schofield on the sexual behaviour of young people (1965) and Geoffrey Gorer on ‘Sex and Marriage in England Today’ (published 1971), found most young people were either virgins on marriage or married their first and only sexual partner
. Liberal leg. opened the way to change but was only an inroad into the old religious and moral constraints
Mary Whitehouse
. Moral campaigner, social conservative, housewife
. 1963: she began her own ‘moral crusade’ against ‘a tide of immorality and indecency in UK at the time
. She directed this at the Director-General of the BBC Hugh Greene, who she called “the devil incarnate”
. Gained a lot of support when she launched her ‘Clean Up TV’ campaign in 1964
National Viewers and Listeners Association
. Founded in 1965
. Founded by Mary Whitehouse
. Soon had 100,000 members
. Despite lobbying, Whitehouse failed to have any impact on the programmes shown
Youth Culture
. Inclined to question norms, assert right to choose
. Clashed with parents over fashion, music and morals
. Caused concern with older generations
. Alcohol, tobacco + caffeine used more than illegal drugs
. Traditional rules were abandoned
Youth - Music
. Survey in 1969: youths spent more time listening to music in their rooms than at youth clubs or festivals
. Popular music accessed from pirate radio stations, or, from 1967, Radio One
. New tech enabling cheap plastic record players made music accessible
Youth - Fashion
. 60s: London was capital of fashion world for a bit
. Acceptable to wear same outfit for work + evening
. Women wore trousers, men started to wear velvets, satins, brightly coloured fabrics
. Decade progressed, trends became more extreme
. Changing fashions helped override/mask some old social divisions between gender and class
Youth - TV
. TV responded to demand with programmes like: Ready, Steady, Go! (ITV, 1963) and Top of the Pops (BBC one, 1964)
. This helped spread latest trends in music, dance, jargon, attitude, and dress
Youth Subcultures
. End of 1960s: Skinheads evolved from mods
. They had shaven heads, braces, Dr Martin boots
. Hippies rejected social convention and Establishment attitudes
. They embraced ‘flower power’ from America and favoured lifestyles emphasising environmentalism, free love and peace
What happened in Summer 1965?
. Teach-ins on Vietnam at Oxford University and the London School of Economics
The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign
. Set up in 1966
. Gained uni student support
What happened on 17th March 1968?
. Violence at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in London
What happened on 28th March 1968?
. More violent protest known as the Battle of Grosvenor Square
. 200 people arrested
When was the final demonstration?
. October 1968
. 30,000 people
. Relatively peaceful
Other Anti-war Protests
. Throughout 1968
. Occurred at a variety of universities, combined with demands for more student power
Other Anti-war Actions
. Sussex: a speaker on the Vietnam War, from the American Embassy, was covered in red paint
. Essex: two Tory MPs were attacked
. The Labour Secretary of State for Education and Science was shouted down in Manchester
. Denis Healey, the Labour Defense Secretary, almost had his car overturned by Cambridge students
Quotes from the Rivers of Blood Speech
. “in 15 or 20 years time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man”
. “We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual inflow of… 50,000 dependents”
. [Brits] “found themselves made strangers in their own country”, “persecuted minority”
Race and Immigration - 1962
. Pakistanis from the Kashmir region sent men to work in the textile factories around Bradford
Kenyan Independence - 1963
. 40,000 whites there + the 185,000 Asians were guaranteed absolute right of entry into the UK
. Jomo Kenyatta started a Nazi style campaign of persecution against Asians, many were v rich
. Around 2000 per month in 1967 came to the UK
The 1968 Act
. A result of the massive influx of Asian immmigrants after Kenyan independence
. Left 20,000 people stateless
. “the ultimate appeasement of racist hysteria” - Marr
. 72% of British population supported the Act
Commonwealth Immigration Act
. 1962
. Passed 4 years after major opposition to unlimited immigration
. Intro’d a quota system and work permits.
. 40,000 per year allowed entry with complete right of entry for immigrants
Further Govt Action to Immigration
. 1965: controls to immigration intro’d, limited right of entry allowed govt to deport illegal immigrants
. 1965: Race Relations Act
Commonwealth Immigration Act (the second one)
. 1968
. Limited right to return to Britain of non-white Commonwealth citizens (limited entry of British citizens who didn’t have a parent/grandparent born in the UK)
The Rivers of Blood Speech
. 20th April 1968 by Enoch Powell
. Timed to hit the early news bulletin
. Heath sacked him and never spoke to him again
. 1000 London dockers marched in support of him 3 days later, Smithfield meat porters + Heathrow workers also demonstrated in support
. Received death threats and needed police protection
