General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If I was caught in a love nest with 15 12-year-old girls tomorrow.... [View all]TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)It would have been considered even more horrible then. Comedy was far cleaner (George Carlin using the swear words you can't say on tv for example was considered outrageous and over the top though the younger generation found it titillating). People didn't MENTION things like rape or child abuse out loud in decent company... certainly no one would have been so disgusting as to have actually joked about it and publicly. People weren't wanting to even discuss such horrible things and what to do about it, which is exactly why so many many sexually abused children and adults never said a word to anyone about it. I was in high school before it started to finally become newly popular to talk to your kids about bad touching and even books were written about it though there was uproar that people didn't think these books should be in libraries (God bless librarians fighting that fight and soooo many others!).
This is why victims rarely came forward especially children. It wasn't even until the '80's that this "date rape" phenomenon was publicly mentioned... even back then rape by society's standards only occurred by the lunatic stranger jumping out of the bushes rather than the FAR FAR more common occurrence of the rapist being someone that the victim knew and often knew well. Half or even most of society at that time disbelieved that this was actually rape. I was raised in such a society where sexual assault at any age wasn't talked about, parents didn't tell their kids anything about bad touching particularly the boys nor likely would have believed they'd been assaulted by anyone they knew well unless they were was also physically beaten because THEY ALSO grew up in a society where such things only happened by the weirdo jumping out of the bushes, and even then it still often wasn't acknowledged.... if you weren't severely beaten no one - even your own family - would have believed that an assault had occurred because back then victims were EXPECTED to scream and fight to the point where they would have been either murdered or beaten severely and enough to need to go to the hospital especially the girls and women.
One thing that bothered me a LOT when I was a kid was that kids were taught by their parents (if they were good and decent parents) to avoid strangers, not get into a car with a stranger, etc. But we were never told HOW to avoid these situations or WHAT we were supposed to be frightened of by them. NO ONE ever warned their kids about someone they knew doing something heinous to them nor what heinous actions consisted of nor what they were supposed to do if such a situation arose.
One of the things I'm proud of today's society about is wide spread general acknowledgment that rapes occur MUCH MUCH more frequently by someone the victim knows and usually knows well, the victims are no longer expected to attempt to fight off the attacker and certainly not to the point of either death or severe injury requiring hospitalization as well as the "no means no" campaign that helps to encourage children and adults to come forward. Add to that the more widespread acknowledgment and acceptance of LGBT people. Certainly we have miles more to go, but compared to the '70's we've gotten MILES and MILES ahead.