Sarah Dunant: In Defence Of The 1970s

When it comes to sexual history we are still learning. I spend most of my working life immersed in what is considered one of the most artistically and intellectually creative periods of history - the Italian Renaissance. In matters of sex, though, it was a primordial swamp. Rape was a last ditch form of courtship, men in their 30s, 40s and 50s regularly married girls of 14 or 15, surplus girls were shoved into convents, incest was not uncommon, men of good breeding fathered scores of illegitimate children, while their wives - or the ones who got caught - might well have been murdered and homosexuals were mutilated or burnt at the stake. Sex between women was so unthinkable there was no word for it.

Shocking and fascinating, what is perhaps more surprising is that much of the detail of what we know now, we've learned only recently. We are back to the impact of the '70s. Because it was that decade which saw the emergence of historians, academics and cultural thinkers who - having turned their back on the accepted canon of dead white male history - chose instead issues of gender and sexuality, going back into the archives and records to uncover a new past.

You can read the '71 GLF manifesto here.

So where does this leave the '70s for those of us who lived through them? How far should we be applauding the achievements or doing penance for the faults? How about both at the same time? Agreeing that terrible sexual behaviour (hardly new to the 70s) took place, some possibly encouraged by a sense of freedom, but exactly that same freedom and openness changed society's attitudes, making us more tolerant of some things and less tolerant in others. Surely, something to be celebrated.

BBC News magazine - also a BBC Radio 4 A Point Of View talk. 

Blaming the 70s has become quite 'a thing' recently, hasn't it?

Fagburn say: Bring back blaming the 60s!