Goodbye ’60s, I’m off down the pub
“What they were doing in the 1960s came out of an innocence that we’ve lost. No one knew things weren’t possible then; everybody could be absolutely themselves, and Oz magazine was about that generation’s right to speak freely.”
The above quote is from Sienna Miller taking time out from the filming of ‘hippy, hippy shake’ to give us her enlightened opinion of everybody’s favourite decade. I wonder if Miller has actually read ‘hippy, hippy shake’, because to my mind there’s not much liberation to be envied in that book, unless you’re Richard Neville.
Call me a crazy feminist but there’s a bit more to Germaine Greer, Richard, than a very short skirt and a predisposition towards hanging around in the background hoping for a shag. Similarly every female he encounters (up to around 3 girls) are noted as either typists or very generously offering him or his friends their bodies.
The world of Oz magazine is a fascinating one, imagine being incarcerated for displaying school girls on the front cover of your magazine and then attracting the attention of John Mortimer and John Lennon in the meantime, both offering their valuable time, energy and passion for free. I’m prey to being as seduced by the innocence and self-possession of this era as anyone. It’s just that I’m not a man and I’m sure if I wasn’t offering myself up to Richard Neville or typing his letters, he wouldn’t notice me at all.
Try going to a pub with a female friend in the 60s too and you’ll be lucky to get in.
The following is an extract from a marvellous 60s guide to London, called ‘the new London spy’:-
‘Although they are invading London pubs, women may not safely go into all pubs on their own…In some, even today, they will even be shown the door, no matter how respectable they look. But there are a handful of London pubs, growing in number, where a lone woman or a woman accompanied by another female is perfectly safe’. (1966)
‘Although they are invading London pubs, women may not safely go into all pubs on their own…In some, even today, they will even be shown the door, no matter how respectable they look. But there are a handful of London pubs, growing in number, where a lone woman or a woman accompanied by another female is perfectly safe’. (1966)
That’s about five pubs to choose from then. I just hope Richard Neville isn’t in any of them.
