60 years ago, women knew their place

fran17 wrote: »

it all went downhill when women started driving cars...in San Francisco.

FYP

jimthemental wrote: »

I like to think that I'd be all for equality and all that but I have to admit that apart from more regular sex the only reason I'd want a girlfriend is because I can't iron my shirts for shít.

You old romantic you... such a catch!! No girlfriends you say, what a shocker!

fran17 wrote: »

it all went downhill when women started driving cars...

Yeah Saudi Arabia is the happiest place on earth.

Show Time wrote: »

Giving them the vote was when it all went downhill.

And letting them into bars :eek:

paddyandy wrote: »

We are nearer the IDEAL are we ?????? 500 sucides a year now when it was almost unknown then .

I can only hope you're joking. It was almost unknown because no-one would admit to having a suicide in their family (it was illegal for a start). Doctors, families, nurses, priests all covered up suicides. If it was known that you had committed suicide, you couldn't be buried on consecrated ground.

paddyandy wrote: »

We are nearer the IDEAL are we ?????? 500 sucides a year now when it was almost unknown then .

I never said we were nearer an ideal now. Because I don't think the 1950s were ideal doesn't mean I think things are great now, but things are much better than then.

Yes, suicides have risen, but I sincerely doubt that that's because things are simply worse now. Experts are still debating the increase. One reason would be that it's less taboo now because it's more openly discussed.
Even more important in this country, I believe, is that most people are no longer terrified of going to hell and being buried in unconsecrated ground if they kill themselves. It probably happened more often back then than we realise as it would often have been hushed up to avoid shame.
There's also evidence that suicide, broadly, increases along with the material wealth of society, as focus is shifted away from mere survival to a form of society more conducive to introspection.

But overall, of course things are much better than they were in the 1950s.

Look at social improvements: we don't lock single mothers away and take their babies, it's not illegal to be gay and homosexuals aren't demonised, generally. We still don't allow abortion but you can get a divorce if you want.
Archbishops don't dictate to the government on matters of which they know nothing. The local priest is not unquestioningly a pillar of the community.

Look at our quality of life: there's far less poverty and much greater unemployment, much less of which involves hard physical labour. We have much more social mobility. We have more free time and a much greater range of leisure pursuits with which to fill that free time. We can travel to other countries more cheaply and conveniently.

Look at medical advances: diseases which would have killed in the past are now easily treatable.

Those are just the things that came to me off the top of my head.
Apart from the lower rates of reported suicides and the lack of social mobility (which you think was a good thing, evidently, though I disagree), can you tell me any other ways the 1950s was better than now?

Miranda Zealous Gumdrop wrote: »

Think I was born in the wrong decade. That all sounds very appealing to me.

I'd love to come home after a hard days work to a clean house, a roaring fire in the winter / nice cool drink and a relax in summer, and dinner almost ready. Who wouldn't?

What if your wife wanted the same things when she came home from work?

dr.bollocko wrote: »

Hmm.

An old email forward about housewives in the fifties sitting in AH for a day and this hasn't turned into a major crapstorm yet?

Hmm.

Give it an hour I suppose.

Now look what you did.