General Chat

Carol. I hear what you are saying and wish it was true but in the 70s if you showed interest in sex you were labelled as 'promiscuous'. And in school you might have giggled about the idea of sex but most of us knew so very little.

If I can share something that happened to me and my collegues in 1978. We were all about seventeen. It's how you began in my Government office at the time; at the bottom doing the basic clerical stuff.

We were all friends and sometimes socialised outside of work. One lunchtime one of the girls had broken down and finally told one of the others about an older member of staff and what he had been doing to her. That was then shared with the rest of the group as stories were passed on as conversations in corners were overheard and within an hour, we had established that it wasn't just her. For her it was being cornered and rubbed up against plus being asked for sex. Girls in two other departments were involved, not only ours. In some cases it was 'accidental' touching or no way 'accidental'. For some of us it was obscene sexual inuendo (including rape) and propositions. It had gone on for weeks and we had all suffered in silence because of embarrassment and/or fear.

Anyway, we decided that we obviously needed to tell someone. We picked on one of the supervisors; a nice guy and only in his early twenties so not too much older. A couple of the girls went to see him and within minutes all hell had broken loose. All we had wanted to do was get him to tell this man to stop. Of course our colleague took the only action he could but we didn't think much of it that day. He went to my boss who had responsibility for most of our pool.

He wasn't a man known for being kind or understanding plus he was then in his fifties and very much in the mindset of females should be in the home having babies.

Four of us went in on behalf of everyone and he demanded that we all tell our stories. I think that he wanted to prove that we were making it all up or at very least exagerating. He then said that we each had to put it in writing. He said this would go into our records which would show that we had caused a man to lose his job.

The four of us stood strong and we refused to take it all back and we refused to put it in writing because none of us wanted our reports to read that way. Exit his office leaving one very p'd off boss. He had tried to persuade us we were over reacting and it wasn't as bad as we made out. A few minutes later our colleague was removed from the premises. Some older colleagues tried to tell us that we should have kept quiet and some said that we should just have avoided him. Our jobs and his meant that we didn't sit at a desk all day so short of going around in two's for safety, we couldn't be certain of not running into him. I had to spend ten minutes each day in his designated work area and the stuff he said to me was appalling. I couldn't always work it for someone else to be there at the same time. Another colleague who knew him better said that he was on medication for Epilepsy and it was the meds that made him like that. He said we should have been more understanding and sympathetic.

So as you can see, in the 70s, there really was sometimes not a lot of sympathy and understanding when young girls finally spoke out.

AGREE ROSE MY MUM WAS QUITE OPEN ABOUT SEX QUESTIONS IF I NEEDED TO KNOW.
AN THE FIFTYS WASNT THAT THE BEATNIC ERA

Yes Dizzi, ditto for me also.

Yes Rose, by the 70's "things", were becoming more relaxed, and people had sexual education on schools, and talked about it, both male and female.

Julia in Derbyshire

But we're NOT talking about when some of you were teenagers, we're talking about when I was!

I was a teen in the early 70s, and ALL the girls that were in my class when I was 14 talked about sex, and so did the boys,

this was AFTER the 60s as well as during it, maybe some parents, and people generally, did not talk about sex...but we weren't ALL like that, and nor were schools, or parents.

JULIA
AT 14 I COULD PASS AS 18 ANY DAY
MAKE UP STILLETOS AND BACKCOMED HAIR SO FULL OF SPRAY IT WAS A FIRE HAZZARD,
GUESS IT WAS WHAT AREA OR WHAT FRIENDS YOU HAD
MET OH IN1964 MARRIED 1968 WHEN I WAS18

Carol, I too remember the Profumo case. But that made national and possibly international press. You talk about the normal people in the street, and their lives were very different. We hardly lived on the same planet as those who were involved in that particular case.
And do not forget, we were only told, what the government of the time, allowed us to know. It was not thought suitable reading for the masses, though it did appear in some papers.
I well remember at the time when Marylyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday Mr. President", and thought what a nice thing to do. I can see it all, the whole shebang totally different today.

Julia in Derbyshire

PigletsPal and John, you are each so right
Supercrutch, you say ypu went to an all girls school and had Biology in Year 1.
Well, I'm afraid I went to a mixed comprehensive, where sex education was very supressed. Many teachers had fought in the war, and would have been out of their depth, embarrassed and felt compromised.
I do understand what you are saying about young girls around stage doors etc., but I think that when" push came to shove", many would have been frightened to death, if their pop idol had sexualy given them the "come-on".
I was married in the sixties, and thought I was pretty knowledgeable about what went on between married couple. I am afraid I had a very rude awakening.

Julia in Derbyshire

TILL DEFINATE EVIDENCE
WE WILL NOT KNOW THE TRUTH

BUT HONEST I DIDNT LIKE HIM

SHUDDERS

GLAD YOU LOT DIDNT KNOW SOME OF MY PALS
BOY YOU WOULD BE SHOCKED

HOW MANY SCHOOLGIRL PREGNANCYS

I KNEW A FEW

:-D Sorry Julia but I was a teenager in the 60's so did live in those times. I Remember reading about the Profumo scandal in 1963.

Well PP I can assure you that it was a hot topic amongst 600 girls all with raging hormones..lolol

We were all assigned our 'sister' who was one of the lower/upper 6th formers with whom we were to discuss any personal problems in addition to classroom conflicts.

Did not have one single pregnancy in my school either. The system worked or it was a miracle.

I can remember a schoolfriend coming in after the holidays, full of excitement that she had met a young man on Littlehampton beach who had asked her if she could help him mend his fly zip.

It is quite evident now that he was some kind of flasher but then the only important point to us was the fact that she had seen his tackle.

Pubescent girls are very exploitable.

In some ways, thank goodness the world is so different to many years ago. We cannot easily be racist today. We cannot easily be homophobic. We cannot easily poke fun at the disabled. And we are very aware of sexual abuse, bullying and domestic violence.

If you watch "The Comedians", a comdy programme each week some years ago, you will see what I mean. We all laughed at disabilities, ethnicity, homosexuality, even abuse. It was a very popular progarmme and seemed "fun" at the time.

Supercrutch do not know how old your are, but you would appear to be a lot younger than me as you mention 'Year 1'

When I was a secondary school yes we talked about boys and kissing, but to talk about s.e.x. was just not done. If only it had been then we would all have been aware that much of what we said we had done was sheer fantasy!

Agrees with Carol. I was at an all girls school and sex was definitely discussed.

Year 1 biology included sex education although it was presented in a curriculum format we all knew what our teacher's message was.

In the early 60s after watching our idols live at theatres/clubs there would be queues of girls by the stage door, some entirely innocent others clearly not so.

Carol, as one who has said that "these things were not talked about then"., can I say again, no, they were not talked about, as they are today. Yes,now, it is seen as a sexual case against a minor. But then. Well, as in many rape cases that even get before the courts today, would this person have been believed.
Yes, she may well have had a titter with here friends, perhaps seeing it as a bragging point. But to tell parents, or other people in authority, no, no
You have to have lived in those times, to understand. And, I stand by everything I have said.

Julia in Derbyshire

John Gutter press making money out of a Dead Man .fair enough if other people living get found out & face charges .i am 100% behind anyone going to prison & put away for a very long time its heartbreaking all the goings on .there are some real sicko`s in society Barbra

When you hear groups like the Beatles, The Kinks, the Rolling Stones, Unit 4 + 2 and so many more talking about what it was like in the 1960's with drugs and sex, JS may one day be seen as a scapegoat.

He was attractive because he was loaded, because he opened important doors and was very influential, and because he had a "devil may care" approach to life. And he was fantastically fit and collected vast amounts for very important charities.

I think a lot of our pop heroes may be hauled over the coals now about indiscretions many years ago. Suspect even the very saintly ones will have had their moments - and not always checked birth certs of those they abused.

Yes these girls were under age & any sexual act against them was wrong, but everyone keeps saying that 'these things were not talked about at that time', but having been the same age as these teenagers I dispute that.

Teenagers always have chatted to their friends, may even brag about having met celebrities,kissed etc.

I am not making light of these acts, but do think that everyone should imagine what they would have done if their 'pop idol' had made advances to them when they were that age. (Though why JS should have been anyone's idol defeats me, he was no Elvis) I am sure many would have had to tell their friends!

Barbra He has certainly been found guilty in absentia. Some of papers are openly calling him a paedophile now.

Little thought for his family and friends - all those who turned up a few months ago to praise him at the Cathedral in Leeds. And all those who watched funeral on news at home.

How do they all feel now. They will all be questioned in this inquiry and probably very few of them knew anything about these allegations.

And this girl who was kissed by Jimmy as he passed. Has it really scarred her for life? She was 13 and in hospital.

Well, I remember when I was a very innocent 16 year old at a parfy where we had to kiss each other, a girl came over to me, I proffered my cheek hoping secretly she would choose my mouth. But she grabbed my face and kissed me with her tongue in my mouth. I did not like it, but smiled as I wiped my mouth dry. She did it to all the boys. Her idea of "having fun" was not mine.