Historical Context - Why We Need To Revisit This In Society

 Just the other day I opened up an Ian Fleming James Bond novel to find terms that are offensive now, but were not offensive in 1952. If you look up old classic movies and books that are not of our time period we see that the gender roles are more boxed and rigid. My point is simply this; the time period of your entertainment makes a difference and should not be ignored. Let's dive into that. 

Photo courtesy of The Guardian

I'm starting this topic with a strong statement. History forgotten is history that repeats itself. If we burned and destroyed every offensive book on the whole earth we'd completely wipe the history shelf clean, have no historical fiction, forget our history, and then live it all over again. This is why banning books and entertainment is a huge problem and should not be happening. Aside from perhaps the books on dark magic (that isn't Harry Potter or fictional), I do not advocate that we get rid of books containing offensive language or ideas, but instead, use them for teaching purposes and set them as reminders of a time we no longer live in. That being said, I also advocate this for all entertainment forms.

Historical settings are places we visit in novels (accuracy is another day's blog topic) since we cannot go back in time ourselves. While some books do a horrible job at transporting you to the past, others do so well of a job that we forget our surroundings. It is important to note that what was common in 1928, 1952, or 1813 is not common now. The Bridgerton novels, now a Netflix series, are a good example of this. We don't debut ourselves as women anymore, for example, and don't court suitors (at least, not in the same way). Phryne Fisher is set in 1928 and mentions that most churches don't advocate birth control or family planning. Ian Fleming's work proves he wrote in 1952 by using words like "Chigro" (Chinese and black genetically together) in his book Dr. No. It is obvious that these books were not set in our culturally sensitive or feministic culture. That doesn't mean they aren't fantastic books. Simply put, don't ban a book because it doesn't jive with our time period. 

Romance Novels and History

Historical romance and fiction is a big category favoring highlanders, medieval knights, the civil war and other wars, and the 1800-1900s. It ranges from sexually suggestive to tame covers that reflect a romanticized version of the wars and history, but most of the good writers do their research and do a great job of taking you back in time. Little details might make you gasp when you do your own research later and find they were correct in this or that topic. It is critical to know what was appropriate then and what social rules and role your main character is living with.

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 In the movie Brave it is actually true that women could refuse to marry and it was considered irresponsible. Not all societies could do that, though. Bridgerton reflects 1813, where a rich, titled English family of 8 are marrying off into the world. The men are not expected to debut themselves and can get away with mistresses, and yet, we see women can't declare they aren't going to marry and support themselves. or have flings and affairs. Today we say "double-standard!" and think that is unfair. Women today are free of quite a few useless and tiresome social rules that used to put us in the property category. Women in 1813 were not so lucky, especially when rich. Merida, in the framework of her time, was dodging responsibility. In our lense, it doesn't come across like that. In our time she is fighting to marry someone she loves in her own time, which may still be true, but she was refusing to grow up in some ways. She was doing the equivalent of bumming it in the basement, should you need it explained in our words. This is precisely why we need to take into account the social rules of the time.

Classics 

When I say classic I mean something representing the time period it was written in. Along with that, it must be beloved and touch readers years after it is released. In this way, it has to be relevant to multiple generations. Think about what you had to read in school years for your language arts classes if you need an example. 

James Bond novels are considered historical classics, as well as Little Women, The Last of the Mohicans, Pride And Prejudice, and To Kill A Mockingbird. I think you get the general picture of a classic book. These especially need historical viewpoints and a lens of historical knowledge. They don't and won't make as much sense in our society's viewpoint. I said before that Fleming is not culturally sensitive when it comes to referring to black people in his novels, but that makes sense given he lived in the 50s, where quite a lot of people in white neighborhoods were not sensitive at all. His views were common then, thus the offensive terms were not offensive then. This is precisely why you have to understand the time period before you judge the book as offensive or not. 

Photo Courtesy of Vanity Fair

Another example is Little Women, set in 1868. The roles of women were far from what they are today. 

 I read it all and loved it. The thing is that if you don't understand the roles of women in that time you miss some of the importance of the plot. Aunt March will make no sense when she talks about how women can't make their own money outside of acting or running a cathouse (in her eyes, the same thing). Also, the houses have names and you have to pay attention to that (like Jane Austen's book Emma). 

Our Culture Versus Then

You see, being culturally sensitive is not what Fleming was going for - he was just writing a spy novel set in the Cold War. He didn't stop and say "what will the next generation think?" because he was living in his own time, which goes for every writer you know. Our culture and its viewpoints are not the same as the previous decade's viewpoints. You have to understand this before you judge a book by its ideas. 

Think of the politics of today. This shapes a cultural mindset. The politics of the Civil War, Cold War, WWII, or WWI are different, vastly so. Different terms and lingo are often used in all these different contexts. Jayhawkers don't belong in WWII, but they do belong in the Civil War. Nazi's weren't involved in the Cold War, but they were in WWII. Basic knowledge of political events is in order for even Little Women, where the four March women grow up in the midst of the Civil War. Bond makes no sense without the political context of the Cold War. Atomic Blonde (movie and comic book) would be extremely confusing without knowing about the Iron Curtain. 

Photo courtesy of Fashionista

Social practices of our time will not match what the March women lived, or what the Bridgerton family does. Phryne Fisher's life is not what ours' is. The social rules that put us within social propriety would stun women and men from the times we read about. What we wear, say, do, and have the freedom to do today could make us socially unacceptable to other decades. The standard that Bridgertons live in shows undergarments that look like they hurt, when today we don't wear corsets and layers under dresses unless it is a costume. Don't judge the social actions of a character by today's standards if they lived three decades ago.

Language is a factor here. "Samson slew the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass" does not mean he slew his enemy with his buttocks. Ass is another name for a donkey. Simply put, words change context as time passes and you have to know what they mean or you are lost in the storyline. How words are used also matters, given that connotation of a word changes the meaning. Saying that something is gay can mean it is happy in archaic language, but in my lifetime it has had two completely different meanings. One occurred around my Jr High age (I am 26, for reference) and it meant "stupid". Today it means homosexual. The definition in the dictionary didn't change; the use of it in different eras did. Know which era you are reading or watching and do your research. It is a general practice to know what your words mean before you speak them, so think before you speak.

Closing Remarks

Canceling old books and movies that have "offensive" content is like trying to erase history. It needs to stop and we need to start using them as teaching tools that show our history. If you truly want to change the perceptions of others canceling the evidence it was misperceived is not the answer. I advocate that we use our brains and make up our own minds when we read or watch something. Take into account the historical time and context. Don't judge a source of entertainment by the viewpoints of characters that didn't live in the time you did. Don't expect the past to conform to the present - it won't. 

Sources:

https://www.thoughtco.com/concept-of-classics-in-literature-739770#:~:text=Classic%20literature%20is%20an%20expression,its%20construction%20and%20literary%20art.

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-historical-context-1857069#:~:text=Historical%20context%20is%20an%20important,details%20that%20surround%20an%20occurrence.&text=In%20analyzing%20historical%20events%2C%20context,to%20behave%20as%20they%20did.