SCH context of the 1960's

social, historical, cultural contexts 1960's and the avengers

The Avengers as a distinctive generic identity that is rooted in the British popular culture.

Television drew upon this tradition

Series 4, Episode 1

'The town of no return"

Brief Summary

Steed and emma are on the trail of several murderee agents. They visit little Bazeley by the sea, a town that strangers rarely leave alive and discovered it is being secretly infiltrated by enemy agents.

The swinging 60's 

London had changed from the bleak, conservative cityto the capital of the world, full of freedom, hope and promise.

Young people were given a choice!

Music in the 60's 

The Beatles 'british invasion' changed music. They experimented with new sounds and develop innovative pieces of music. Their later albums included lyrics encouraging rebellion against the authorities, as seen in 'Revolution'.

Young people began to stand up for their beliefs and their individuality.

Drug Culture

• Recreational drugs (drugs taken for entertainment/ employment rather than medically) were at their height in the sixties and became more commonly used in the latter part of the decade.
• Images of the Woodstock festival show people high on drugs, dancing in fields with paint on their face and their hair flowing free.
• It was very difficult for anyone in show business to avoid becoming involved in drugs in some way and as easily influenced young people looking for fun, many were encouraged to follow their idols and take hallucinogenic drugs. LSD made people feel happy and optimistic and helped bring about the 'hippie' movement.

Feminism

• 1960's- The Feminist Movement
• Protests, womens liberation groups
• 1965- Use of contraceptives/safe birth control. This changed the relationships attitudes of many young women to sex and sexuality.
• Women were paid significantly less (60%) than men.
• Fighting for reproductive freedom - Women's abortion rights - won in 1967
• Women's rights in the workplace - women had lower salaries and worked in 'pink collar' jobs such as secretaries, not professional 'white collar' jobs such as lawyers/doctors.

Emma Peel
Emma was seen as Steed's professional equal - inspired by James Bond. INTERTEXTUALITY

Clothes of Peel and fighting ability - this demonstrated modern liberated femininity. She embodies the new international fashion in women who like to dress and fight like men. Slightly ahead of fashion at the time.

Leather outfit (originally designed for freedom of movement) added to the highly fetishistic dimension, which was far removed from the 'girl next door' image that was represented in TV during the 50's - a social cultural change in society.

A spited heroine of the 60's

Sexuality

In 1963, The minorities research group became the UK's first lesbian social and political organisation. They went on to publish their own lesbian magazine called 'Arena Three'.

A UK opinion poll finds that 93% of respondents see homosexuality as a form of illness requiring medial treatment.

• In 1966, Humphrey Berkeley introduce law to legalise male homosexual relations. He lost his seat in -Parliament due to his actions to legalise gay sex.
• Gay men who were publicly gay, were either sent to prison and put into mental institution.
• If men were sent to mental institutions, they endured experimentation, torture, pain- causing drug and electroshock therapy as a cure for homosexuality.
• Mid 60's activists became increasingly aware of the threat in prison.

 

Russian Spies

The fear of Russian spies in cold war 1960's Britain

• After world war II, the United States and the Soviet Union were the worlds strongest nations.
• The cold war (45-90) was a long period of tension between the democracies of the Western World  and the communist countries of Eastern Europe.
• There was great distrust between soviet Union and the rest of the Allies.
• The west was led by the United States and Eastern Europe was led by the Soviet Union. These two countries became known as superpowers.
• Arm Race - Who had better weapons
• Space Race - Who could accomplish space race first?!
• The cold war came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union (today known as Russia) in 1991.

Paranoia was common during the Cold war - due to propaganda, ignorance, fear and secrecy.

The threat of replacement 'insiders' in the Avengers reflects to the paranoia generated by the cold war, compared to the more everyday threat of crime in cuffs.

How is this context represented in the Avengers?

 It takes for granted the existence of a Russian spy ring in Britain...
Steed knows where their headquarters are. And this episode aired at the time when the reality of Soviet Unions were penetrating the British intelligence.
English system is seen as an obstacle, preventing the Russians from carrying out their plans.
RELATED TO AVENGERS

Ethnicities: the assumption of a common 'white' culture in 1960's Britain, despite presence of minorities.

All characters in The avengers are white.

Gender

Steed- Personified the traditional gentlemen hero
Peel-combined felinity and modernity

Post sexual

Women VS Men

• More females than ever were entering the paid workforce, and this increased the dissatisfaction among women regarding huge gender differences in pay and advancement and sexual harrassement at the work place.
• By the end of the Sixties, more than 80% of wives of childbearing age were using contraception after the federal government in 1960 approved a birth control pill - this provided women with a lot more freedom.
• Basic goals of the Sixties feminists: equal pay for equal work, and end to domestic violence, restricting severe limits on women in managerial jobs, an end to sexual harassment and sharing of responsibility for housework and child upbringing.

• The mini was designed to be free and liberating for women, allowing them to "run and jump"In 1968 at a Ford factory in Dagenham, 850 women went on strike, arguing for equal pay against the male co-workers. This action resulted in the passing of the Equal Pay Act of 1970.
• Cigarrette advertisements always featured attractive men, most often in suits, but from the 1960's on, advertisements also showed rugged men in outdoor settings