‘As a woman you don’t want to be just a window dressing’
‘I don’t have a mechanism in my head that prevents me from saying what I think’
‘I can’t imagine living in a time when you couldn’t express what you felt. That’s why (Betty- Character from Mad Men TV Series) does what she does. She’s imploding to the point where she gets so frustrated that she does something wacky’.
After reading these views from Ms Jones and also the recent controversy over the Playboy Club reopening in London, it got me thinking about whether social, sexual and political repression within and previous to the 1960s produced more or less anxiety than our present society. Of course there is the argument that most sufferers were silent then; so a happy facade was not always evidence of a content person, but I still wonder if the amount of mental illness/anxiety has changed as a result of the change in culture, especially for women.
The late 1960s were the beginning of a revolution, a revolution of freedom of speech, freedom of expression and sexuality, which over the next 50 years progressed into a hugely sexualised and opinionated population. Media has played a big part in this, music videos, television and film, access to uncensored internet pages providing the opportunity to passively view a wide range of information or contribute opinion and judgement, like I am now.Talking about topics such as mental illness, homosexuality and corruption publicly was limited and controlled before, whereas now, we are expected to discuss our most personal problems, beliefs and criticisms. Is it possible that perhaps we have become too open, maybe even too free? It seems everything we do or say provokes a demand for more information. And being private and reserved is the new suspicious or unusual behaviour.
Don’t get me wrong, being expressive and unguarded has its benefits; I now know there are other people suffering with depression and anxiety, and asking for and getting help is less difficult than it would have been 50 years ago. Mental illness is gradually becoming something we don’t have to suffer with in silence and it is widely acknowledged and understood. Also having the ability to communicate our worry, desire, pleasure and pain to colleagues, friends and family is obviously beneficial, an efficient support system is so important in our lives.
Free expression and sometimes necessary confrontation are also benefits of living in today’s society; fifty years ago women were more frequently being treated as inferiors, were patronised, taken advantage of and objectified, having the ability to act as men could and as is acceptable now would have been extremely valuable. Women’s repressed lives meant great dissatisfaction and frustration.
Choice, Freedom and knowledge, things we now take for granted, are so important in making us healthy happy people, giving us the ability to talk rather than to suppress and understand rather than be ignorant. Nevertheless we now have pressure to conform to being ‘loud’, with few public inhibitions.
The manners people were expected to have then, and the more formal social protocol have diminished. We now have the added strain of knowing most people we meet will not be apprehensive to ask us about even the most personal aspects of our lives, and won’t be scared to publicly convey their positive or negative judgement of us. Even for those without social anxiety this comes with the risk of embarrassment, humiliation and exposure. I am not naive enough to think people didn’t act overtly opinionated, inquisitive and candid years ago- it was just more private and shameful.
Now it seems the tables have turned. I just think having the freedom to be reserved and guarded can still be a good thing. But it seems we don’t have the choice to be this way anymore, without being ostracised.
Mental illness, particularly anxiety can be caused by a range of factors and in both eras there are negative influences. It just seems to me that nowadays there are huge demands to be perfect, to be physically, emotionally and socially appealing, and to prove it to everyone you meet!
Because there is so much freedom and opportunity now, something we didn’t have before, we are expected to take full advantage of all of it, and be everything we are now allowed to be.
All of these factors lead me to believe that anxiety has increased due to a society that has become unpredictable and highly demanding- we are always on edge because we never know what may be expected of us, it would now not be that unheard of for someone we have just met to ask us about our sex life. People are unrestricted. We also have so much stimulation, including shocking images and comments in the media and around us that we are expected to be shocking and compulsive ourselves. I believe this has made people, who may have already be prone to anxiety/depression, more anxious.
In 1960 a woman may have been anxious about speaking too much. In 2011 she worries about speaking too little. Both women become mute.
All of these factors lead me to believe that anxiety has increased due to a society that has become unpredictable and highly demanding- we are always on edge because we never know what may be expected of us, it would now not be that unheard of for someone we have just met to ask us about our sex life. People are unrestricted. We also have so much stimulation, including shocking images and comments in the media and around us that we are expected to be shocking and compulsive ourselves. I believe this has made people, who may have already be prone to anxiety/depression, more anxious.
In 1960 a woman may have been anxious about speaking too much. In 2011 she worries about speaking too little. Both women become mute.
