No Sex Please, we're British

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:43 pm

thought this was worthy of sharing...

Siberys · Post by **Siberys** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:53 pm

Not sure face cream and hair rollers would really make the sight of a 1960's british woman all that more uncomfortable....

Sometimes, it's hard to believe things like that were real.

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:38 pm

Sometimes I wonder if the future will be able to top the depravity of the past. Have we already peaked? The article was an interesting look into what the old curmudgeons refer to as the good ol' days, however, I did find it curious that the author decided to curtail the testosterone towards the end by having the wife make her husband tea. Coffee, liquor, or the tears of his oppressed wife would have been a much more appropriate beverage to maintain that special level of superiority it seems the article was going for.

Siberys · Post by **Siberys** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:55 pm

Umm...top the past's depravity? I take it you haven't heard of internet porn, Joe Rogan, Goatse, pain olympics, or the like.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 3:24 am

Ironic eh? And yet it was those same British that were first to invent such well known terms as the 'Jangleberry Tree', the 'Prince Albert' and the 'Glastonbury Mudskipper'.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 3:37 am

What's funny though..
is that if you think about it, this type of an article might have even been risqué for the time.

After all, suggesting that a woman, during "congress," emit a "small moan" at his "moment of fulfilment" .. is practically graphic for 1961... (especially if you consider that it was allegedly in a school text book)

Bear in mind that the sexual revolution did not occur until the mid/late 1960s.

QuenGalad · Post by **QuenGalad** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 4:37 am

@Endboss, good point about the drinks. This is what i, too, call depravity. Oral sex is considered sinful, but rightful enslaving another human under pretences of love is a holy union.

@DW, I suppose that if we had a school textbook with that kind of content even now, in 2010, there would likely be a massive protest of enraged parents, and not because of the said enslavement of the wife, either

Poland still has a very similar standard concerning female sexuality. The 'wifely duties' are to be performed in humility, and you can still hear that finding pleasure in an intercourse is wrong more often than you would like to. Which is really sad, since it leads to all kinds of problems, starting with adultery and ending on juvenile prostitution.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 4:52 am

Where did you get that DW, if it really was first published in the 1960's, then it obviously was meant to be a joke. It certainly doesn't bear any resemblance to anything I came across in the UK in the 1960's, and I had two older sisters who were anything but careful where they hid things, abd their magazines and stuff were always a magnet for my attention. That would have been so funny it'd have stayed in my memory for ever, and I'd still be taunting them with it.

The photo looks more Victorian than 1960's too, I think if it's genuine, and not a spoof, then it dates from Queen Vic's day, not Thin Lizzy's.

Darth Gavinius · Post by **Darth Gavinius** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:55 am

I'm with Galraen on this, without referencing what book it actually came from, it just seems more of a parody. Though I would say it fits better with the conservatism/puritanism drivel of the late 40's and 50's, which no doubt kids would still be subjected to well into the 60's, much like we still used late 70's textbooks in the 90's...

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:33 am

I was certainly not exposed to quite that level of stupidity, well apart from 'Duck and Cover, and I was born in 1950.

Salidin54 · Post by **Salidin54** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:49 am

I wonder how much different things will be 50 years from now?

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:21 pm

Salidin54 wrote:I wonder how much different things will be 50 years from now?

Yeah. Cybernetically imposed anarcho-aristocratic ideals by the ruling partition of the global hive mind really put a damper on all that dear old procreation business, doesn't? Makes you wonder..

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:08 pm

Salidin54 wrote:I wonder how much different things will be 50 years from now?

"There were racists in the early 21st century? How primitive for our people to have once had skin colors. I beseech thee, robot, have you fetched my cybernetic drilling arm from the upgrade shop? I am commissioned to mine for unobtainium in the caves of Olympus Mons on the morrow."

More or less.

Moonbiter · Post by **Moonbiter** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:37 am

This is a piece from a book called (translated from Norwegian, I don't know the original name) "Guide for the perfect housewife" the last word meaning homemaker or stay-at-home wife. I have a 1959 copy in Norwegian sitting in my bookshelf. It was originally published in the UK from 1954 to 1962, and was translated to numerous European languages. There was, according to my dad, a similar book for men. It is definitely not a hoax or a joke, and has been the source of numerous jokes.

Brit comedian Harry Enfield made a lot of comedy skits citing the book as an inspiration. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w"]Here's one of the classics.[/url]

Edit: My mom just told me that when she arrived in Norway for the first time in 1963, she got handed the book by my Norwegian grandmother...

The pic is definetly fake, though. The book contains mostly illustrations and some very 50s photos. (Think Fallout intro.)

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:10 am

I actually did some searching on the internet for this and I think you'll find it originated in this. So not printed as a joke or hoax, but definitely well before the 1950's, and pretty much every moral and social outlook the Edwardians and Victorians held look like jokes to us, mainly because they are so absurd. The only people these days who are likely to find such nonsense appealing are the sort who are also fans of Sarah Palin. She probably wishes she'd written it!

X_Toad · Post by **X_Toad** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:23 am

Moonbiter wrote:This is a piece from a book called (translated from Norwegian, I don't know the original name) "Guide for the perfect housewife" the last word meaning homemaker or stay-at-home wife. I have a 1959 copy in Norwegian sitting in my bookshelf.

I'm French, and my grandmother once talked to me of a book whose title, when translated, would be really close to this. Although, I don't think she ever told us of the content and I didn't ask to see it at the time. My grandmother always had it at the time, I think she mentioned it was a rather good (if not excellent) recipes book. She was not exactly a housewife, but she definitely took care of most of the cooking, although my grandfather is no slouch in that matter either.