Mary Whitehouse, (1960s campaigner on decency etc.), and joining up the dots to today!

grahamg

Old codger
I started to listen to a radio show yesterday, the subject of which was the campaigning carried out in the 1960s by Mary Whitehouse, related to the decline in public decency she saw happening back then, particularly as depicted on TV.

In those days, I like most of my generation, thought Mary Whitehouse to be a silly old woman, with her trademark glasses, and strident views on what was seen on UK television screens, and I'd guess most people saw her as a figure of fun.

A clip of the woman predicting the effects she believed would come to pass, if public decency was not protected, and far from thinking her views ridiculous, I found myself agreeing with almost every word.

On this forum I've offered endless views on fathers/parents rights, (or lack of them in the UK). I'm now going to try to "join up the dots" between the views and predictions of Mary Whitehouse, and what we see so often today we hardly comment upon it.

"Fatherlessness" has grown out of all proportion, along with divorce rates, and the whole direction of travel has been to weaken the institution of marriage.

The state, with its "parens patriae" role, whereby preparing our children to be useful citizens to join the "rat race" is put above all else, all backed up by their view, (or you could argue "society's view), of what is in any child's best interests interests put above everyone else interests all the time, as you know!

There you have it, my attempt at connecting the decline in moral values, and ultimately children being supported in rejecting a parent who has loved them, on the basis this is in their interests, and that's all they should consider.
(hopefully nice try anyway! :) ).
 

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When I manage to "fire up" a response on one of these threads, vaguely associated with fathers/parents rights), I often feel the need to quote a gentleman called Mnookin, who wrote of "the best interests of the child paramount principle", being no less a question than the meaning of life itself!!!!!!

Now I mention it again here because it will obviously be outside most of our comfort zones to try to explain the mysteries of life, but why not give it a shot, and try to connect Mary Whitehouse, and her campaign, with negative social situations most of us dislike today.

" Good luck"! :)
 
Being American I had never heard of her until 2008, when I watched the docudrama about her starring Julie Walters in the title roll. I loved the story, she was a fascinating person. Just like Graham, I would have laughed at her at the time, but now see how right her predictions were of morality going down the drain.

I've lived long enough to see unmarried mothers go from being considered immoral, to being the most admired, "brave" women in the world. All this sympathy and admiration has certainly brought about a huge societal change. The unmarried birth rate going from about 3% in the 1940's to about 50% now. With that comes increased poverty, crime, and just the sadness of children growing up without the security of fathers in the home.

I don't think we should ever go back to shaming these women, most are fine, hardworking people, but they clearly have been irresponsible at some point. We don't shame the boy next door who gets a DUI, but we don't praise him for it either.

What fired Mary up in the first place was some dirty words spoken over the radio while the family was having dinner. Imagine if she was alive to see movies shown on cable TV in the middle of the afternoon, with full frontal nudity.
 

"Filth" The Mary Whitehouse story starring Julie Walters appears to be on youtube. I enjoyed your post very much @Della, & I think I might watch it on your recommendation. Thanks. My first reaction to @grahamg 's post was Hogwash, so I'm interested enough to explore my response.
 
I started to listen to a radio show yesterday, the subject of which was the campaigning carried out in the 1960s by Mary Whitehouse, related to the decline in public decency she saw happening back then, particularly as depicted on TV.

In those days, I like most of my generation, thought Mary Whitehouse to be a silly old woman, with her trademark glasses, and strident views on what was seen on UK television screens, and I'd guess most people saw her as a figure of fun.

A clip of the woman predicting the effects she believed would come to pass, if public decency was not protected, and far from thinking her views ridiculous, I found myself agreeing with almost every word.

On this forum I've offered endless views on fathers/parents rights, (or lack of them in the UK). I'm now going to try to "join up the dots" between the views and predictions of Mary Whitehouse, and what we see so often today we hardly comment upon it.

"Fatherlessness" has grown out of all proportion, along with divorce rates, and the whole direction of travel has been to weaken the institution of marriage.

The state, with its "parens patriae" role, whereby preparing our children to be useful citizens to join the "rat race" is put above all else, all backed up by their view, (or you could argue "society's view), of what is in any child's best interests interests put above everyone else interests all the time, as you know!

There you have it, my attempt at connecting the decline in moral values, and ultimately children being supported in rejecting a parent who has loved them, on the basis this is in their interests, and that's all they should consider.
(hopefully nice try anyway! :) ).
Very interesting study. I watched a little of a debate on "violence in film" after the movie "Rambo" with a film director and Mary. She seems to be concerned with the decay of priciples that help people feel secure...less violence, less individual freedoms, less flaunting of traditional ways, etc.... I noticed two new threads today being about the same sort of thing. "Do we dress like our parents did at our age", and "What has happened to the decline in traditional fashion in society?". It might be some cosmic need to understand how change happens today. :) There are so many varibles to the change in society. To choose one and debate it or compare the old with the new is not the best way to understand what happened.
There has always been violence/wars/conflicts while in recent years the media has captured it more vividly and naturally shows it in movies. Are thriller/horror movies promoting violence in our youth? Some of our members LOVE horror movies..probably shoot 'em up ones also. As far as fashion goes , it changes with the times, and reflects the well being of our lives. Which has declined over the past 50 years. The behavior of the citizens of planet earth are merely reflecting the well-being of their lives, and it is deteriorating fast, while the wealthy enjoy whatever they want.
So I think Mary is trying to stop the decline...but it is impossible. Too bad.
 
"Filth" The Mary Whitehouse story starring Julie Walters appears to be on youtube. I enjoyed your post very much @Della, & I think I might watch it on your recommendation. Thanks. My first reaction to @grahamg 's post was Hogwash, so I'm interested enough to explore my response.
Oooh, I'm going to go watch it again, see how I feel this time.

One thing's for sure Julie Walters is an amazing actress, I just watched her in a movie on Tubi, "Strange Relations" where she played (oh the irony) an unmarried mother who had to give up her baby in the 1950's. I loved it. Funny and heartwarming!
 
I'm going to post a few short videos of Mary Whitehouse giving speeches, not sure how relevant to the thread topic they will be, (she is the second woman to speak btw):

 
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I don't feel comfortable with the site youtube sent me to in order to watch movie free. Although they said they wouldn't use it, the site wanted my credit card number so I chickened out. Does anybody use the youtube movie service and has had to give this info? Do you find it safe? Thanks. I'm disappointed.
 
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I don't feel comfortable with the site youtube sent me to in order to watch movie free. Although they said they wouldn't use it, the site wanted my credit card number so I chickened out. Does anybody use the youtube movie service and has had to give this info? Do you find it safe? Thanks. I'm disappointed.
It seems to be a bit different here, (no request for credit card details anyway, and no I wouldn't give mine either), but if you google "Mary Whitehouse video", you should find another one you can access, FOC okay, (I think?)!
 
Is this the right one? I found it on Youtube, but I have VPN so that might be different.
No, but thank you for trying Janice! The info I'm getting is that the movie "Filth" is not available for streaming in the United States.
 
Apologies if this interview with Mary Whitehouse isn't quite on topic, (but its the best video can find right now):

My! The interviewer, with her cigarette and her pained eyebrows, was so incredibly smug I could barely watch the whole thing.

I don't feel comfortable with the site youtube sent me to in order to watch movie free. Although they said they wouldn't use it, the site wanted my credit card number so I chickened out. Does anybody use the youtube movie service and has had to give this info? Do you find it safe? Thanks. I'm disappointed.


Pepper and I couldn't find the BBC docudrama on YouTube. Oddly they title a lot of movies that have nothing to do with this "Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story" which seems to be a way to mislead us into watching something they do have. I wouldn't put my Credit Card number online for anything right now. I recently had to stop my card and get a new one because some man in California was buying muscle powder and "enhancers" with my money! I'm disappointed, too.
 
Her Christian Social Conservative view is nothing new. They burned women to death for "being" witches. Nancy Reagan wanted to put warning labels on music/lyrics that were morally evil. "Family Values", really got the nation back to a perfect society. Hah! Ever since then it has been a continuing fight against imposing "Christian" morals on our freedoms. They are scribes and pharisees and should be driven from the temple of God, because they are hypocrites...full of dead mens bones. Now they are trying to overturn Roe vs. Wade. They have no compassion for anybody that doesn't wave the Christian war flag.
 
I'm going to post a few short videos of Mary Whitehouse giving speeches, ......?,(apologies folks in the USA have had so much trouble accessing a video clip - I thought there might be one available FOC on "the largest social media website", but obviously not!).
I wouldn't confuse Mary Whitehouse with any extreme views currently being promoted in my humble opinion, not least because she was prepared to put herself through an interview with the lady/woman mentioned above, "smoking and with pained eyebrows"- (just remember though "we all", as in younger people just thought Mary Whitehouse deserving of ridicule at the time, in defence of the interviewer).
 
Her Christian Social Conservative view is nothing new. They burned women to death for "being" witches. Nancy Reagan wanted to put warning labels on music/lyrics that were morally evil. "Family Values", really got the nation back to a perfect society. Hah! Ever since then it has been a continuing fight against imposing "Christian" morals on our freedoms. They are scribes and pharisees and should be driven from the temple of God, because they are hypocrites...full of dead mens bones. Now they are trying to overturn Roe vs. Wade. They have no compassion for anybody that doesn't wave the Christian war flag.
Really? This woman wanted to limit the amount of sex and violence on TV and that makes her the same as witch burners? Most witch burners were men whose farms had failed so they blamed the old woman down the road. Men have often hated women who have the audacity to get old and no longer attractive to them. Christianity had nothing to do with that.

Actually, I think there were a lot of people who would have liked to burn Mary Whitehouse as a witch.

Where is her hypocrisy? It's not as though she was speaking against all the sex on TV while running a brothel.

I'm no fan of Nancy Reagan, but I don't see how her failed campaign caused any damage to society.

If Christians have been fighting to impose their morals on society they are clearly losing the battle. You should be very happy about all the children growing up without fathers, all the increase in crime and poverty, the legalization of marijuana, and the end of all restrictions about what's shown on TV.

If Christians have no compassion for anyone why are the behind the largest majority of charities, feeding children and funding hospitals around the world?

Please list the freedoms you have lost recently due to those pushy Christians.
 
Please list the freedoms you have lost recently due to those pushy Christians.
Gosh, I wish you didn't ask that. Just say I'm glad I don't live in Texas. Now I will shut up, at least for a while in order not to damage sensitive psyches. The problem shouldn't become political but it always does.
 
Her Christian Social Conservative view is nothing new. They burned women to death for "being" witches. Nancy Reagan wanted to put warning labels on music/lyrics that were morally evil. "Family Values", really got the nation back to a perfect society. Hah! Ever since then it has been a continuing fight against imposing "Christian" morals on our freedoms. They are scribes and pharisees and should be driven from the temple of God, because they are hypocrites...full of dead mens bones. Now they are trying to overturn Roe vs. Wade. They have no compassion for anybody that doesn't wave the Christian war flag.

I don't adhere to "Christian" principles, except maybe the Golden Rule. As a practical matter, however, children raised in two-parent homes do better than children raised in single parent homes. That's just a fact that has nothing to do with morals.

But as other posters have indicated, the march toward drug use, pornography, disgusting lyrics in rap and other pop music, abandonment of marriage and other "progressive" behavior continues apace. Isn't it wonderful that those awful Christians have been defeated on so many fronts!
 
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All Christians are not Conservative Christians who's agenda is to build coalitions to impose their moral views on our society.
Funny. That's just what I was going to tell you. All those links were scare mongering about what might happen if the Christian right has it's way. Well we might have a country that is completely lawless if the far left has it's way about police, drugs and a push to empty the prisons no matter what the crime. The Mexican drug cartel has already invaded California to make sure they get plenty of that marijuana money.

Fortunately, I don't think either side is going to take over the country.


I don't adhere to "Christian" principles, except maybe the Golden Rule. As a practical matter, however, children raised in two-parent homes do better than children raised in single parent homes. That's just a fact that has nothing to do with morals.

"Christian" principles include the Ten Commandments so that includes things like don't steal, don't murder, don't lie against people in court. Jesus added all the "do" principles like loving each other, taking care of the sick, feeding the poor. He never said a word about abortion and neither do I.

For the record, I'm a Democrat and an Episcopalian. Our bishop is a lesbian, we are very liberal.
 
Please put this in context. All Christians are not Conservative Christians who's agenda is to build coalitions to impose their moral views on our society. Many are the salt of the earth. Read the Beatitudes and you will understand what that means. They describe a person that loves God with all their heart and mind, and loves their neighbor as themself. Read more of what Jesus actually says and you will not be able to justify the behavior of JUDGING others, because with what judgement you impose, will be imposed on you.

The creepy Christians are easy to spot. They throw stones at sin/sinners...but Jesus said "he that is without sin cast the first stone.


I was being sarcastic, of course. I'm a churchgoing Episcopalian. But I have to admit I really only go to church to socialize and drink coffee after the service.
 
I can't figure out what you're getting at or who you're directing these posts to. Your first post on this thread sounded like you hated Christians with a fiery passion. Then we started getting things like the post above.

Yes? There are over 600 laws in the Old Testament. They weren't all Commandments, most of them were what we would call regional laws today, food laws for a hot climate so people wouldn't get sick or laws against mixed materials in fabrics that would rot each other. Why are you angry about that?
 


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