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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025

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Surely we can put some 'pressure' on women to settle down earlier without making it a legal mandate?

Sure, but that relies on men wanting to settle down earlier, and in the halcyon days before liberalisation as described, men saw marriage and fatherhood as traps, as women trying to net a husband and tie a man down. Jokey references such as "the old ball and chain" may have been jokes, but also were a cultural assumption that wives were shackles (literally) on a man's freedom - to have sexual experiences, to travel, to drink/smoke/have fun, to enjoy being a bachelor.

The movement towards Free Love and Sexual Liberation was two-pronged; men wanted to be free of obligations as much as women wanted the sexual freedoms of men. The (to my ears) rather whiny lyrics of the 70s hit Lydia express this: the guy wants to be free but also wants a no-strings-attached woman and place to crash when he wants/needs it.

Lydia keeps my toothbrush in her apartment and she never complains.
Well, hardly ever. And then jokingly she says.­
Boy, it's been so long since I held you, I nearly gave you up for dead. I nearly gave you up for dead. I nearly gave you up for dead.

Lydia, Lydia how come you understand?
I can offer you nothing at all. This is more than I had planned.
Lydia, Lydia I am at your command, at least until morning comes,
then, I must be off again.