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Is it true that in the past, some things that are not acceptable today, were "acceptable"?

posted 4 years ago by TheMan18 (13188)
16 replies | jump to latest

Or at least not that harshly condemned and looked down upon, but question is, what has changed?

Also, how come the very same thing or things that can be said of murder, for instance, are often not the same for other matters that we consider either worse or equally bad, can we not just put all bad things into one same basket and be happy and content with it?

I know that film is just that, film and fiction. But how come we today are more offended and more sensitive towards certain issues or scenes portrayed in them but maybe we were not some decades ago, and vice versa, again, what changed?

And - as long as we don't actually do anything wrong or illegal in life etc, do we have to take it all literally or can we take it with a pinch and salt, if we either want to or can't help it?

For the record, film-wise, I am a bit or even a lot of a gore-hound and a sleaze buff myself. And even in films that show it somewhat neutrally like works of late Alain Robbe-Grillet, I watch and appreciate it all without much of a problem on my behalf, even if of course I do not think what those people do is right etc. I also don't approve of murder of innocent people. But some people DO complain and even bring about today's day and age and various hashtags like MeToo or focus groups like feminism and human rights organizations etc and talk about how it is all unacceptable, in polite terms that is. Who is right HERE and what do you think about?

Cheers.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

Times change.

Many things were either less or more acceptable. Accepted age to have sex was 3-4 years lower during the 70s, for example. Back then, nobody would bat an eye about a 14 or 15 years old having sex. Pornography was less spread (no internet) but more accepted in general. Drugs were way more accepted.

Other things were less accepted, though. For example: rape was less accepted back then. I'm not kidding. Back then, you went to jail accused of rape and your life would be a nightmare. People accused of rape had to be kept apart because otherwise they'd be killed. That doesn't happen anymore. One of the consequences of making everything a rape is that real rape has lost much of of the bad reputation it had and has become more of a just another standard crime.

[–] TheMan18 (13188) 4 years ago

Yeah but did they really even MAKE "everything rape" these days as you claimed it and again, what changed, its all also so confusing as well.

[–] TheMan18 (13188) 4 years ago

And ku, I'd rather NOT talk about it so explicitly please, thank you.

[–] TheMan18 (13188) 4 years ago

You sure DO have a lot of guts to talk about that subject in detail like that ku I give you that.

[–] TheMan18 (13188) 4 years ago

Ok ku you are oddly welcome but...

Can we have a few other responses here from other folks and fellas for a little bit o'balance, thanks.

[–] KinkyInk (1694) 4 years ago

"Pornography was less spread (no internet) but more accepted in general."

Not in the 70s. In the 70s, the government was still putting people in jail on obscenity charges. The movie 'Deep Throat', released in 1972, was a watershed moment for porn. The government came down hard (heh heh) on it, trying to prosecute everyone associated with the film. But the publicity created by the fuss made the movie one of the most-seen porn films in history up to that point.

And the only way to see porn films back then was in shady-looking theaters or ordering them through the mail. So no, they weren't accepted.

All that changed with the emergence of the VCR in the 80s, and suddenly you could get porn at the local corner store and watch it in the privacy of your home. And then with the arrival of the internet in the 90s, porn was even easier, and more private, to get.

Porn's acceptance has been increasing over the years, and today it is much more acceptable than it was in the 70s.

Written porn is a different story though. Ironically, the censorship of certain topics is greater now than it was back then.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

And the only way to see porn films back then was in shady-looking theaters or ordering them through the mail. So no, they weren't accepted.

I've lived when it was normal to see porn movies in shopping malls and porn magazines in newsstands, when video stores used to have a section with porn movies. Porn used to have a "prohibited" separate section, and you were likely to be scolded if you were a kid snooping those sections, but it was part of daily life.

Nowadays it's completely isolated. It's easy to access because of internet, but still isolated. Try to find that "prohibited porn section" in Netflix or Amazon Prime.

In the 70s, the government was still putting people in jail on obscenity charges.

Those were the last breaths of Christian conservatism, which was a declining power.

Nowadays it's the opposite, Woke conservatism (AKA modern left) is the rising power, including 4th wave woke feminism, which is as puritan as traditionalist Christians and is engaged in a battle against pornography and prostitution. In London, the major banned portraying women in bikinis in billboards, and a still to be enforced but already passed recent law allows the government to control everybody who watches porn in UK.

[–] KinkyInk (1694) 4 years ago

The point I was responding to was your claim that porn was “more accepted in general” back in the 70s.

It wasn’t. Not by a long shot. Whether that could be blamed on ‘Christian Conservatives’ or just the general prevailing attitude, it doesn’t matter.

By it’s nature, porn is something that’s usually enjoyed alone or with one other person. And it’s always going to be that way. That’s where the isolation comes in. But we’re talking about acceptance of that isolated behavior. People are much more willing to admit they enjoy porn these days, because most of the social stigma is gone. Most people accept that as long as it’s kept away from children, there’s nothing wrong with it.

As for newsstands carrying porn, the biggest newsstand around is Amazon, and they have tons of porn on their bookshelves. Hundreds of thousands of erotic books that sometimes pop up in innocent searches.

[–] KinkyInk (1694) 4 years ago

"But how come we today are more offended and more sensitive towards certain issues or scenes portrayed in them but maybe we were not some decades ago, and vice versa, again, what changed?"

I blame it on social media. There were the same amount of people offended back then, but you never heard from them unless you happened to run into them in person. Now, this minority has a larger voice, and the media piles on, running story after story about how 'some' people were offended by something, but never mentioning they're a small percentage of the population. And then you have people who would have never been offended in the first place, see these people complaining and say, "Yeah, you're right, I am offended by that."

[–] M1sterDoct0r (4560) 4 years ago

^This, right here! People think that everyone is offended by everything or is just 'too sensitive' nowadays. The ones who are, are definitely in the minority. And It's usually people getting offended on behalf of others

Cancel Culture as a whole are definitely in the minority. But places like Twitter give them a voice to complain about everything. And everyone else just seems to bow to their whining & stuff.

They've always been there but now, they have a platform

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

my father's sister got married when she was 16 back in 1927. no one had a problem with it.

[–] TheMan18 (13188) 4 years ago

My grandmother may have around 17 or so as well. Or 18.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (15113) 4 years ago

Yep. It used to be acceptable to discipline your kids in public if they started acting bratty, disruptive, or disrespectful. Nobody batted an eye because anyone with half a brain could see that the little shit deserved it most of the time.

The trouble was, after the 60s you had annoying old maids (today we sometimes call them "Karens"), and gay people, who had never raised a child in their lives, who couldn't tell the difference between discipline and abuse, calling the cops and putting the [responsible] parents in jail while the kids were [wrongfully] taken away by child services. Now we have at least 3 generations of kids who have no discipline, are spoiled rotten, and show no respect towards their elders at all, whether they are family or not.

[–] M1sterDoct0r (4560) 4 years ago

The way I've seen kids talk to & treat their parents is legit scary & should be downright unacceptable in our society to be honest. I'm like holy sh*t, we're royally screwed if this is truly how kids are raised today

I grew up in the 90s & early 2000s and we were definitely disciplined. But more importantly, we were taught to respect our elders. Doesn't even matter if you're related to 'em or not, show some respect. That sh*t is non-existent now

I'm thankful to my grandmother. She wasn't perfect but she raised me well.

[–] jimmyjuliano12 (342) 4 years ago

moral standards have dropped, just turn on the news.

[–] BillySlater (4285) 4 years ago

Only the politically incorrect stuff has become unacceptable. No one cared about offending a trans person 20-30 years ago. Now you have scientists, too scared to state facts for fear of being cancelled.

On real issues, I would say the opposite is true. Society is morally decaying. Almost everything is "acceptable" nowadays.