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They didn't have the levels of teen pregnancy and STDs that we have now in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s, though, did they?
didn't they?
i thought stds were rife but probably not identifiable as stds..a hell of a lot of people died. i'll try google
edit: ah good ole' syphiliis!!
source: http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/guide19/part10.html
With the rise in prostitution, there's an increase in gonorrhoea and syphilis. Specialised asylums for treating STIs ? called 'lock hospitals' ? serve to punish and separate sufferers from the general public. Medical treatments are quite primitive and also extremely painful.
In the 1850s, about half the outpatients in the main London hospitals are suffering from STIs, mainly the killer syphilis. To deal with the problem, Parliament passes the first of several Contagious Diseases Acts in 1864. These are intended to regulate prostitution in six garrison towns and ports, where it is assumed that soldiers and sailors need prostitutes. Any women found within a certain radius of garrison areas can be arrested and physically examined to see if she has an STI.
I meant from the 1920s-1980s though.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/article.asp?ID=535&Pos=1&ColRank=2&Rank=384
Page 37 gives figures for 'Girls having first intercource before 16 years of age, by year of birth' from 1931-73. Page 38 says: 'Only 1 per cent of girls born in 1931 had first intercourse before age 16, rising to 5 per cent for those born in the 1950s, and continuing to increase, reaching 24 per cent for women born in 1974'.
But the trend is clear - there will be some lying (more under 16's had sex in 30's than admit and now there's probably under 16 virgins bragging how they shagged), but not enough to suggest that sexual activity was the same in 1930 as now
There will be changes in biochemistry yes, but typically contraceptive stuff isn't crap' or artificial chemicals, just some naturally occurring hormone to fool the body into thinking it's not pregnant. Or something like that...
Somethings really are a slippery slope and where they end nobody knows. If anyone needs a reminder you can watch The Dying Room online.
Yep. Most historical religious characters would be considered a paedophile by today's standards. Muhammed, Joseph, etc. Even the most recent, Joseph Smith (Mormons) married a 14 year old, and I think the scandal wasn't about her age, it was that he was already married. Didn't Elvis have a relationship with an underage girl (by todays standards) too? But the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians weren't against sex for pleasure. The Egyptians invented the condom, and I'm led to believe that the Greeks and Romans promoted sexual relationships between men in the army (the idea being that it creates a stronger bond between soldiers). In fact, I suspect that a lot of the outrage about teenage sex nowadays actually stems from a disapproval of sex outside of marriage, rather than the idea of a 16 year old having children.
Anyway it's worth remembering that history has never had one attitude to sex. For every period of rule by a Nero promoting seantors wives having sex in public with slaves there's a period of rule by a Vespasian or Tiberius demanding tighter controls and more restrictive moral practices and at times draconian measures.
And even then a lot of the stories about the sexual proclivities of Roman Emperors were told by there detractors. The stories about Nero were often told by to show how degenerate he was, and as a reason why it was alright to depose him.
Nope. Elvis met his first wife when she was 14, and they had to hide it from the media apparently. I remember watching a documentary on it. They definitely had a relationship when she was that age, but obviously I don't know if anything happened.
Oh yeah, don't worry - no way I thought you'd be agreeing with anything like that
That's so shocking.
I can but feel they'd come up with some sort of reason not to be happy.
I daresay some Mail readers would just publically flog those who got pregnant at a young age.
The Council of Trent was a Catholic Council, by that time England was mostly Protestant anyway.
Luther and Calvin may have had the view that '[marriage was] a worldly thing... that belongs to the realm of government' but it's clearly the idea of a religious and divine covenant that has the upper hand until relatively recently in the UK. So despite the gap beween the Marriage Ordinance of Geneva and the Restoration (1546 - 1660) I still see the Council of Trent's decree as a valid starting point for at least the modern religious view of marriage.
Previous to that for the vast majority marriage was an economic institution set in the context of almost unimaginably harsh lives.
But anyway, getting more than a little off the main topic