Very glad I'm not a teenager today

[Weird Harold]

From what I have read, the publishing of a girl's nude photos in Playboy banded her as a sort of semi-prostitute in the 50s. Nowadays, there are all sorts of girls from everyday walks of life who have nude photos in Playboy and there does not seen to be any public shame.

I think there's a flaw in your reading. Unfortunately, it's because the written record of the fifties (or any period) is drawn largely from the comments published by journalists and negative news sell papers.

I grew up in the fifties and sixties and while Playboy models weren't considered "Good Girls" they weren't considered "Bad Girls" either -- except for a vocal minority of puritanical moralists that got a lot of press coverage. In my experience, Playboy models were considered "artistic models" in the mode of Ruebens and other classic painters' models and to a large extent still are -- unlike the "Girls of Hustler" or "Penthouse Pets."

In 1965, my sister was offered a chance to model for Playboy -- which she turned down after giving it some consideration -- and it was considered a compliment rather than a suggestion that she lacked morals.

From the viewpoint and experience of a small boy, in a small Oregon town, Playboy has always been an "art" magazine rather than a "porn" magazine -- Others might have encountered different attitudes where they grew up, but the only people I've encountered that had a different opinion of Playboy were people who thought it was sinful to get undressed to bathe.

Oddly, that image does NOT carry over to Playboy's imitators and their models, so your essential point -- that tolerance for certain things changes over time -- isn't really invalid. It's just that Playboy isn't a good example for your point in my experience.

 

[Teenage Venus]

On the other hand, taking pictures on oneself masturbating is asking for trouble.

It would NOT be so but for society's attitude - any more than taking a pic of yourself scoffing a doughnut. "Evil is in the eye of the beholder".

 

[fifty5]

Re: Re: Re: Re: OK, but...

Now there is virtually no place in the entire world that a victim can go without wondering if the rumors, gossip, and pictures have been seen there, too. And it's the "wondering" that produces the fear, not any "facts" about whohas and hasn't heard the rumours or seen the pictures.

You're right about that of course. I still wonder if, for any particular individual, the outcome is actually worse than the unjustified (and justified) worries earlier generations had - which were pretty bad!

To someone our age, this looks like (because factually it is!) far worse than we faced - on top of all that came before. For all I know it may feel worse, but things have always happened that felt ultimate, absolute, and the end of the world. Maybe the limit is the adolescent capacity for angst, not the technology that brings it on...

f5

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OK, but...

Maybe the limit is the adolescent capacity for angst, not the technology that brings it on...

Verbal bullying and harrassment are, and always have been, only effective as long as the victim allows them to be. What is devastating to one person is a mere annoyance to another.

However, before the internet made world-wide distribution of of character assassination possible, there were always "safe zones' where someone could go to avoid the harrassment.

Now, the only "safe zone" is locked in your room with all communication devices turned off.

If someone is afflicted with adolescent angst and is disposed to see the potential scale of the harrassment instead of the actuality, that lack of "safe zones" can lead to far more tragic results than the more localized problems of the past.

In spite of Teenage Venus' assertion to the contrary, "compromising photos" of what should be an intimate secret shared with a friend or lover are embarrassing and humiliating when exposed to the general public. I'm not ashamd to admit that I masturbate, but I definitely don't need or want to demonstrate that to the world -- I prefer to masturbate in private whether it's with with a companion or solo.

I can easily see this sort of modern high-tech harrassment pushing some angst-laden teenager into a suicidal depression.

Suicidal depression is nothing new and the old harrasment technologies were often sufficient to cause it, but the new technologies remove so many of the ways harrassment could be escaped and can make the situation seem so much worse.

 

[sweetnpetite]

Before email, this was all the rage:

Call up a girl and start talking trash about another girl. Meanwhile that girl is on the other line, just waiting for the girl you called to agree with you. When she does-- war!

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Teenage Venus: I'd sure like to see those policies strictly adhered to in the States like our Zero Tolerance policy is now.

 

[fifty5]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OK, but...

... Suicidal depression is nothing new and the old harrasment technologies were often sufficient to cause it, but the new technologies remove so many of the ways harrassment could be escaped and can make the situation seem so much worse.

Please don't get me wrong. I am definitely not intending to down-rate the new threats. My intention has only been to counter any implication that the previous situation was less than absolute. At the time, things could still be felt as the worst possible humiliation.

f5