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From: c50p-az@dorothy.Berkeley.EDU (E. Stephen Mack)
Newsgroups: soc.singles
Subject: Another thought on why are males are X and women are Y
Message-ID: <239@zen.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 19-Sep-86 03:14:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: zen.239
Posted: Fri Sep 19 03:14:28 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Sep-86 05:28:16 EDT
Sender: news@zen.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: c50p-az@dorothy.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (E. Stephen Mack)
Distribution: net
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 85

Trudy writes a sensitive article on stereotypical high school
expectations, ending with the following invitation for
followups:

|So, that's my perspective growing up on the west coast, female, in
|the late 70's early 80's. Were things the same as they ever were(are)?
|Trudy

My perspective (male, west coast, 80's) is similar; I thought it
was surprising how much I agreed with your comments.

In the high school I went to, in an office, they had all the class
pictures from the last 20 years.

Starting about 1960 and proceeding until 1973 (or so), all the males
wore school blazers and slacks, and ties.  All the females wore dresses
and formal shirts or sweaters.  (Except the cheerleaders, who wore
their uniforms.)

At 1973, it seemed only 80% were in uniform.  The rest wore jeans,
had long hair, or in other ways deviated from the "norm".

From 1974 to 1978, less and less people were in uniform.  In 1979 and
from then on, 99% of the students were dressed in jeans and T-shirts,
and their appearance matched (and matches) the current TV/Movie
portrayal of high school teens.

That line of demarkation (somewhere around 1973) seemed to me to mark
an era -- not just of looks, but attitudes.

In the high school I attended, there were still expectations -- of
the "bad girls did it/good girls don't" sort and the "boys must
get as far as possible as often as possible" sort -- but these
only arose, perhaps, because they were EXPECTED to arise.  We all
knew (from parents, TV, books or maybe just cultural assimilation)
what it had been like in the past, and we sort of followed the path
of least resistance and reacted in the same ways our parents reacted.

But in practice, it seemed to me, the stereotypes weren't held to.  On
an individual level, we had made up our own minds.  I knew males who
in the locker room told us all about their exploits with some female,
but were always sensitive when dealing with females on an individual
level.  And I knew females who thought of themselves as "good girls" but
had still "done it," and "bad girls" (that is, girls with a
reputation from those locker room talks) but whose reputations would
prove to be false.


The behaviour is still gross, and I wish I had been more
enlightened when I was in high school.  Thankfully, it seems
in the "modern sexually free '80s", when the average age of losing
virginity is around 13, we are slowly moving out of that mindset.

I think people are becoming more mature earlier, compared to when
our parents became mature.  The "rite of passage" age I believe is
getting lower and lower.  (Maybe someone can confirm physiologically
as well that we enter puberty earlier now and have our first
periods/erections at a younger age?)

So, the upshot is maybe hopeful.  Perhaps we will "evolve" into the
more mature "college attitude" towards sex -- that is, an attitude
where people make up their own minds about sex and no one feels that
they are pressured into anything.

Well, we can hope anyway.  Something to watch for when we have our
own kids.

But, in the meantime, can anyone confirm the date 1973 as a date of
change in our society's mores?  Is there someone with an earlier
perspective than mine or Trudy's?


[e. stephen]

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