Scandles as part of the 70-80 year loop
History repeats itself.
Sex scandles have been all people have talked for the past 25 years. Garry heart could have become president in the late 80s if it wernt for his sex sxandel. Bill Clintion isnt known for anything he ever did except his sex scandel. Everyone from Rob Lowe to Tonya Harding to Paris Hilton has had a sex tape. And panic of ‘wont please someone think of the children’ has streched from the McMartin preschool trial to Mary Kay Letourneau and Debra Lafave.
But it wasent always like this. 30-35 years before this trend, in the ‘represive’ 50s, sex scandles wernt big news. Even such public figures as Marilyn Monroe and JFK didnt have their sex lives plastred on the front of every newspaper in america. It was all kept quiet.
There was also the case of Alan Turing. A skilled mathmatician, he helped to crack the german code durring WWII. But in 1952 he was accedently outed as being gay. This did NOT result in front page headlines for months and months on end. Charges and setencing were carried out mostly in secret. It wasent somethign that every person in america was talking about with their coworkers.
As much as the sex-positive comunity likes to bash the ‘ozzy and harriet’ years, thhere just wasent a lot of public outcry regarding sex in the 1950s. This was because sex just wasent in the forefront of society. Cant very well have moral outrage againt something that is underground in the first place.
Sexual liberation and sexual represion are two parts of the same issue. They feed off each other. If sexual liberation is at a low, it is not because sexual represion has ‘won out’ and pushed it down. When sexual liberation is at a lot then sexual represion is at a low as well. When sexual liberation is high, so is sexual represion.
Go back another 30-35 years from the ‘represive’ 50s and we find that the loop has come all the way around. It was the Flapper era. Reckless and carefree. ‘Petting parties’ were all the rage. One of the bigest holowood star of the time, William Haines, was openly gay. The first efective screning test for Syphilis took much of the worry out of casual sex.
And with the hightened public intrest in sex came hightned scandles. Fatty Arbuckle had his carrear ruined with three consicutive trials for a rape he probably didnt do. That was front page headlines for years. It was a crowning achevenment of ‘yellow journalism’.
This repeating pattern, of sexuality being public for 30-35 years then being private for 30-35 years then being public again for 30-35 years can be traced back for centuries. In 1831, the Petticoat Affair resulted in so much public attention that several members of Andrew Jackson’s Cabinet resigned in discrace. This all happened durring a peek in the publics attention toward sex. But 40 years before, when Alexander Hamilton was involved in a sex scandel the news came and went with hardly a peep. This happened in a time of little public focus on sex.
So where are we headed? Well, the period of public focus is drawing to a close. Thers already a decreasing trend. Garry Heart was run out of town with pitchforks and torches 20 years ago. But Bill Clintion emphised abotu how his actions should have remained private. (Both democrats by the way. The line about political party double standards dosent work.) Celeberity sex tapes have already saturated the market and people just cant get gosip running on them any more. Porn, the driving force behind the VCR and the internet, is lagging behind with web2.0
Sometime around the year 2025, privacy will be at its peek once more. Sex will have gone undergound and like it was in the 1950s.
History repeats itself.