Liberal Society Abd Its Opponents 1951-79 Flashcards
What are liberal values?
In a social context, people with liberal values tolerate or embrace greater individual choice and freedom regarding sexuality, family structures, religious belief, and fashion.
What is Mass Observation?
An academic research organization founded in 1937 that studied the everyday lives of British people through diaries and questionnaires.
What significant societal changes occurred in the 1960s?
The 1960s marked the end of Victorianism and the rise of a more permissive society, leading to a growth in liberal values.
Who is Marie Stopes and what was her contribution?
Marie Stopes was an author whose book ‘Married Love’ published in 1918 challenged the reluctance to discuss sex publicly and argued for women’s enjoyment of sex within marriage.
What concerns arose after the Second World War regarding traditional values?
There were concerns that the war had undermined traditional values by promoting sex outside marriage and encouraging divorce.
What was the impact of Alfred Kinsey’s research?
Kinsey’s 1953 book ‘Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female’ helped undermine moral condemnation of sex before marriage.
What was the significance of the 1959 Obscene Publications Act?
It recognized greater public openness to sexual images and discussions, but only at an elite level.
What did Dr. Alex Comfort’s book ‘The Joy of Sex’ emphasize?
It dealt with sex as a pleasure in its own right rather than solely as part of married life.
What liberalizing laws were passed in Britain between 1959 and 1969?
Laws included the Obscene Publications Act, Suicide Act, Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act, Theatres Act, Sexual Offences Act, Abortion Act, Family Planning Act, and Divorce Reform Act.
What was the source of demand for liberal laws in the 1960s?
Demand came from backbench MPs influenced by long-standing campaigns rather than from the general public.
What did David Steel’s Abortion Act address?
It addressed the high number of deaths and injuries from dangerous ‘back street’ abortions.
What did Michael Schofield’s survey reveal about teenage sexual behavior?
Only 18% of girls and 10% of boys had sex with more than three people, indicating that promiscuity was not the norm.
What did Geoffrey Gorer’s study find about marriage in England?
96% of women and 95% of men were married by age 45, with the average age of marriage for women falling below 23 by 1970.
How did attitudes towards sex before marriage change by 1990?
By 1990, less than one percent of first sexual intercourse took place before marriage.
What was the purpose of the Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act?
The act aimed to abolish the death penalty in the UK.
What significant changes occurred in British law between 1959 and 1969?
A series of liberalising laws were passed that decriminalised certain acts and relaxed laws on other crimes relating to sex.
Who primarily drove the demand for liberal laws in the 1960s?
The demand came from certain backbench MPs, not from the general public.
What was Roy Jenkins’ view on liberal laws?
He saw these changes as a measure of a ‘civilised society’ and unofficially encouraged Labour support for liberal laws.
What did Christie Davies argue in his book ‘Permissive Britain’?
He argued that MPs failed to consider the long-term consequences of liberal laws and that the removal of strict boundaries contributed to the decline of traditional morality.
How did Brian Harrison view legislative reform?
He believed that legislative reform merely caught up with changes in behavior that had begun after the end of the Victorian era.
What did Michael Schofield’s survey reveal about teenage sexual behavior?
Only 18% of girls and 10% of boys had had sex with more than three people, indicating that promiscuity was far from normal behavior.
What did Geoffrey Gorer’s study find about marriage rates?
96% of women and 95% of men were married by age 45, with the average age of marriage for women falling below 23 in 1970.
What significant change in attitudes towards premarital sex was noted in Gorer’s study?
Young people were found to be more tolerant of sex before marriage compared to the previous generation.
What was the public perception of homosexuality in the early 1960s?
Homosexuality was poorly understood and viewed with great fear and hatred, particularly towards homosexual men, who were thought to be ill.
A 1963 poll revealed that 93 percent of people thought homosexuals needed medical treatment.
What legal risks did homosexual men face before 1967 in England and Wales?
Before 1967, homosexual men risked arrest and imprisonment for having sexual relations.
Over a thousand men were imprisoned in the mid-1950s purely because of their sexuality.
What was the significance of the trial of Lord Montagu and Peter Wildeblood in 1954?
The trial highlighted public sentiment against the regulation of private acts between consenting adults and led to calls for legal reform.
Montagu was sentenced to a year in prison, and Wildeblood to 18 months, which many viewed as excessively harsh.
What did the Wolfenden Committee recommend in 1957?
The Wolfenden Committee recommended decriminalizing private, consenting homosexual acts for men aged 21 or above.
However, there was significant resistance in parliament to this change.
When was the Sexual Offences Act enacted, and what did it entail?
The Sexual Offences Act was enacted in 1967, decriminalizing private homosexual acts but still making it illegal to solicit homosexual relations in public.
The number of arrests for public indecency tripled between 1967 and 1972.
What was the Gay Liberation Front, and when was it founded?
The Gay Liberation Front was founded in the USA and established a British branch in October 1970, promoting openness about sexuality.
It aimed to normalize homosexuality as a part of life.
How did public attitudes towards homosexuality change by the early 2000s?
By the early 2000s, most British people felt it was not wrong to be gay, reflecting a significant shift in public attitudes.
Cultural figures began to make camp behavior more acceptable in the 1970s.
Who were some notable figures that contributed to changing perceptions of homosexuality in the 1970s?
Television stars like Larry Grayson and John Inman helped normalize camp behavior, although they publicly denied being gay.
Grayson had catchphrases that hinted at his sexuality, while Inman played a camp character in a popular sitcom.
What was the impact of the song ‘Glad to be Gay’?
The song ‘Glad to be Gay’ by a pioneering artist reached number 18 in the singles chart, contributing to the visibility of gay culture.
It was a significant moment for gay representation in mainstream media.
What challenges to the permissive society emerged in the 1970s?
Challenges came from religious leaders, public figures with Christian faith, and some Conservative politicians.
What did Margaret Thatcher express in January 1970 regarding the permissive society?
She expressed a desire for ‘a reversal of the permissive society’ in the decade ahead.
Source: Interview with Margaret Thatcher in the Finchley Press, 2 January 1970.
What concerns did Thatcher raise about personal freedom?
She questioned whether giving in to every instinct and whim equated to true freedom, suggesting it was more akin to being a slave to one’s appetites.
What societal changes did Thatcher hope to see?
She hoped to see a decrease in the divorce rate, greater understanding between generations, and more emphasis on family.
How did Thatcher’s views on permissiveness evolve in the 1970s?
Her attacks on permissiveness increased, and by 1977, she stated that basic Christian values were ‘under attack’.
Who is Mary Whitehouse and what was her concern?
Mary Whitehouse was concerned about the impact of mass media on British morals, particularly blaming the BBC for promoting liberal values.
What action did Mary Whitehouse take in 1964?
She secured 500,000 signatures for her Clean-Up TV petition, which she sent to the queen.
What organization did Whitehouse’s campaign merge into in 1965?
The campaign merged into the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association (NVALA).
What legal action did Mary Whitehouse take in 1977?
She launched a legal case against the magazine Gay News for publishing a blasphemous poem.
What was one of Whitehouse’s campaigns against in the 1980s?
She campaigned against pornography, influencing a law in 1981 to require sex shops to have blacked-out windows.
How is Mary Whitehouse viewed by the public?
Her reputation divides people; some support her moral stance, while others see her as interfering and out of touch.
What was the purpose of the Nationwide Festival of Light staged in Hyde Park in September 1971?
To promote Christian morality and prevent the spread of ‘moral pollution’.
Who were some notable supporters of the Nationwide Festival of Light?
Journalist Malcolm Muggeridge and pop star Cliff Richard.
What was the impact of the Nationwide Festival of Light on society?
It had little impact on permissive trends in the media or society due to the declining influence of Christianity.
What does Callum Brown argue in his book, The Death of Christian Britain?
He sees the 1960s as the key decade when Britain became ‘secularised’ (non-religious).
What factor does Callum Brown note as impacting female church attendance?
The influence of girls’ and women’s magazines.
What did anthropologist Desmond Morris state in his book, The Naked Ape?
‘Religion has given rise to a great deal of unnecessary suffering and misery.’
What was the public reaction to Desmond Morris’s views on religion?
Sales of the Daily Mirror were boosted when it serialised his book.
What did historians criticize about the view of secularisation in the 1960s?
They argue it ignores the pre-1960s decline in church attendance.
What did the Mass Observation report ‘Puzzled People’ conclude in 1947?
‘Most people nowadays don’t think much about religion, don’t set much conscious store by it and have decidedly confused ideas about it.’
What was the perception of the social revolution in the mid-1960s?
A large majority of the population experienced it second-hand through mass media.
What did a 1966 poll by the Sunday Times reveal about public interest in new fashions and pop music?
Most people were bored of hearing about them.
What was the regional and generational divide in the diffusion of liberal ideas?
There was a divide in how different regions and generations experienced the social changes.
