I think I've mentioned Jillian before. She was at university with me. Jillian would quickly shake you out of any quaint notions you might have that young women now dress in ways that were unthinkable in the past. She typically wore skin tight pants and a skimpy tank top and she (literally) did not own a bra. I remember another girl saying that if there was a single guy on campus who had not seen Jillian's breasts it wasn't Jillian's fault.
But that exhibitionism was not what made her famous on campus (it couldn't have because then, as now, there was too much competition). No what made Jillian famous was an interview she did with the local papers about date rape. The anti-date-rape crusade was just getting going at that point and Jillian was a very active feminist. And she and her colleagues had proposed some guidelines for what counted as consent and proposed that these be made part of a campus code of conduct.
It's funny to think now that this stuff was ever taken seriously but it was a mere thirty years ago. As Jillian explained to the reporter, a boy should stop and ask the girl if it was okay to touch her breasts. And then he should stop again to ask if it was okay to unbutton her shirt. And then he should stop again and ask if it was okay to remove her bra.
If you had set out to create a parody of strict legalism, you wouldn't have dared create something as extreme as the feminism of that era.
But the point I want to make is that it really is quite understandable if you think about it. This was also the era when we saw the rebirth of chastity movements on campus. I remember a girl who came to speak on the subject and admiring her bravery standing up in front of a very hostile audience. At one point someone incredulously asked her if she really meant it when she said that couples should avoid even hugging and kissing. She said, "If you don't want to go to Cleveland, you don't get on the bus that goes there."
That was, of course, a canned answer. She was speaking in Canada and she should have said, "If you don't want to go to Sudbury ..." When she said "Cleveland" she gave away that she had been trained using materials prepared by some group in the USA. That said, the group she represented (it was called Campus Crusade for Christ) had a significant presence and there were lots of girls and boys who joined. And the feminist line on date rape and other issues that Jillian spouted was equally canned also having been produced by some generously funded group in the USA.
At the same time, it was impossible not to notice that these new chastity girls weren't actually practicing what they preached. I remember a nasty trick one of these girls had played on her at the time. All her roommates (who had different views) shouted good bye as if they were leaving the house and slammed the door and went quietly to hide in the front room. It worked and Sharon was caught trying to sneak her boyfriend out and accused of hypocrisy.
But so was Jillian. One of Jillian's roommates unkindly pointed out that she had the adjoining bedroom in the house they shared and that not only did Jillian not practice what she preached, she was actually much more enthusiastic about being told what to do in bed than being asked.
Strict legalism doesn't work but it's a natural temptation when things seem a little out of control and things felt like they were getting a little out of control in the early 1980s. Oddly enough, it is now obvious that that period was precisely the moment when things started to turn around. The divorce rate began to decline. So did youth crime and a whole lot of other indicators.
What hasn't changed is the sexual behaviours that came with the sexual revolution. Everything got terribly upset for a while but then we accommodated ourselves and our lives to it.
But that exhibitionism was not what made her famous on campus (it couldn't have because then, as now, there was too much competition). No what made Jillian famous was an interview she did with the local papers about date rape. The anti-date-rape crusade was just getting going at that point and Jillian was a very active feminist. And she and her colleagues had proposed some guidelines for what counted as consent and proposed that these be made part of a campus code of conduct.
It's funny to think now that this stuff was ever taken seriously but it was a mere thirty years ago. As Jillian explained to the reporter, a boy should stop and ask the girl if it was okay to touch her breasts. And then he should stop again to ask if it was okay to unbutton her shirt. And then he should stop again and ask if it was okay to remove her bra.
If you had set out to create a parody of strict legalism, you wouldn't have dared create something as extreme as the feminism of that era.
But the point I want to make is that it really is quite understandable if you think about it. This was also the era when we saw the rebirth of chastity movements on campus. I remember a girl who came to speak on the subject and admiring her bravery standing up in front of a very hostile audience. At one point someone incredulously asked her if she really meant it when she said that couples should avoid even hugging and kissing. She said, "If you don't want to go to Cleveland, you don't get on the bus that goes there."
That was, of course, a canned answer. She was speaking in Canada and she should have said, "If you don't want to go to Sudbury ..." When she said "Cleveland" she gave away that she had been trained using materials prepared by some group in the USA. That said, the group she represented (it was called Campus Crusade for Christ) had a significant presence and there were lots of girls and boys who joined. And the feminist line on date rape and other issues that Jillian spouted was equally canned also having been produced by some generously funded group in the USA.
At the same time, it was impossible not to notice that these new chastity girls weren't actually practicing what they preached. I remember a nasty trick one of these girls had played on her at the time. All her roommates (who had different views) shouted good bye as if they were leaving the house and slammed the door and went quietly to hide in the front room. It worked and Sharon was caught trying to sneak her boyfriend out and accused of hypocrisy.
But so was Jillian. One of Jillian's roommates unkindly pointed out that she had the adjoining bedroom in the house they shared and that not only did Jillian not practice what she preached, she was actually much more enthusiastic about being told what to do in bed than being asked.
Strict legalism doesn't work but it's a natural temptation when things seem a little out of control and things felt like they were getting a little out of control in the early 1980s. Oddly enough, it is now obvious that that period was precisely the moment when things started to turn around. The divorce rate began to decline. So did youth crime and a whole lot of other indicators.
What hasn't changed is the sexual behaviours that came with the sexual revolution. Everything got terribly upset for a while but then we accommodated ourselves and our lives to it.
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