That is still recent, considering that humanity has existed for at least tens of thousands of years.
Check your demographics and check on the book I provided a link to. The recent decline in Christian and secular behavior, including dress, can be clearly traced to the late 1960s. Oh sure, you had the Beats, or Beatniks, of the 1950s but they were clearly considered an anomaly.
There was a time when young men and young women were on the same page. Common decency was a lot more common. Oh sure, I heard the occasional swear word growing up, but personal restraint was the norm. The overwhelming norm. You listened to your mother and father because they had been your age once too. If you were Christian, or Catholic, standards were set in school. All the girls wore skirts and they were required to just cover the knees. The mini-skirt was immodest and a scandal. Boys were taught to be well-groomed and respectful of young ladies.
The moms dressed beautifully, there was sense of decorum and they passed their lady-like behavior on to their daughters. The majority of us guys did treat young women with great respect, as well as their moms. We had something called communities of shared values at the time. NO, it was not perfect. We had a few bad apples and crime, but were taught to avoid the bad kids and not imitate their behavior. And we had a few punks in high school that thought smoking cigarettes and drinking made them “men.” And woe unto you if you looked down on that.
Then the radical, anarchist perverts (dictionary definition) and sexual deviants showed up. They were openly non-comformist and “hey, mister businessman, you can’t dress like me” (Jimi Hendrix). And the dope and the sex and “Don’t trust anybody over 30.” Oh they worked very, very hard to convince us truly normal people not to listen to mom or dad or priests or nuns. And we partly believed them, until it was too late.
Their way was the best way, but they had rules and rituals to follow that were dysfunctional and totally regressive.
“Let it all hang out man.” Profanity was common.
Make sure you had a roach clip and smoked weed on a regular basis. Maybe drop some acid. Smoke some hash. Yeah, that’ll help.
Corporations were evil. Laws that didn’t let them do what they wanted - like a bunch of spoiled rotten 5 year olds - were oppressive.
And they were angry. Really angry at anybody that tried, including mom and dad, to point out the error of their ways. “Leave us alone!!! We’ll do what we want!! We’re grown adults!!!”
Have sex with whoever whenever. Oh yeah, gotta have a bunch o ladies. Get high, have sex, leave the next morning. Have three kids with 3 different women.
The Church? Old, antiquated, backwards, oppressive. I’m young and I’ll satisfy my flesh.
And regulation length long hair.
The 1970s saw vicious anti-woman groups appear in the West. They hated feminine behavior. They stopped wearing bras. They wore pants that were - scandalous, and they made sure people saw it. They couldn’t be ladies in any sense of the word. They couldn’t even use the word Miss anymore, it became Ms. (Gloria Steinem, early 1970s). Women would choose, and women were now the aggressors. Guys? Who needs 'em? “A woman needs a man like fish needs a bicycle.” Gloria Steinem
STAY AT HOME MOM? ARE YOU NUTS!!! You are REQUIRED to get a career, to overthrow the patriarchy - comrades! Flowers, candy? Those lying, dirty, deceitful men. We spit on romance.
To my fellow Catholic sisters and brothers: modesty, decency in word and dress, self-restraint in word and action. Realize we are complimentary. Realize that relationships matter. Hooking up, adultery, fornication and going to prostitutes are wrong. Profanity is always wrong.
Friendship
Earn each other’s trust
Shared values
If both agree, a steady relationship
Perhaps courtship
Perhaps engagement, and then,
Marriage - not to be entered into lightly and a commitment for life that is open to life.
That. And realizing what it really means to be a man and a woman.
Peace,
Ed