Sound: Bob Jones discusses sex in the 1950s

Hear Bob Jones talk about sexual attitudes in the 1950s:

Click on arrow to play (231kb)

Transcript

The general culture of course was that any sexual activity — or even thinking about it — before marriage was just untenable, and there was certainly never any suggestion of contraception. And of course these were the pre-pill days as well, our sexual activity in those days was more wishful thinking. Oh look, I tell you it was Stalinist! I can recall very vividly sort of hordes of police moving in on the school. And I can recall a couple of pupils were ejected, were expelled and disappeared off the scene.

I subsequently met Australians who had read about this in Australia and had come over here — I'm talking about chaps of about 19 and that — coming over to this sort of sexual festival — this great Mecca, rather like Bangkok, with the plane loads, the jumbo plane loads of Germans coming in there that's been going on in recent years — and of course they probably were bitterly disappointed I imagine.

More overtly sexual behaviour amongst young people, as suggested by this sketch, led to adult concerns about 'moral delinquency'.