Mary Whitehouse’s return

She’s enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years. Once she was widely mocked as a puritanical prude. But now, commentators, journalists and campaigners are asking: ‘Was Mary Whitehouse right all along?’ She has returned to the news.

For those who don’t know, Mary Whitehouse came to prominence in the late 1960s and 1970s. It was a time of huge social change. Laws were being repealed as Britain sought to break free from its cultural past and enter a new, more progressive era. Nowhere was this more evident than in the area of sex and relationships. The ‘Swinging Sixties’ saw a sexual revolution which promised liberation and freedom. It was summed up by Roy Jenkins, the then Home Secretary, who said: ‘The permissive society is the civilised society’.

But not everyone agreed. Mary Whitehouse was a Nuneaton art teacher-turned-campaigner and, increasingly alarmed at what she was seeing on the TV in terms of nudity and sexualisation, she began campaigning for change. In 1971, more than 10,000 Christians gathered in Trafalgar Square to take a stand for God’s ways and truth, and to present a challenge to an increasingly secular society. Mary Whitehouse was one of the speakers.

The initial focus of her campaign efforts was the BBC and, in particular, its Director General, Sir Hugh Greene. She marshalled women’s groups and Christian groups, petitioned Parliament and helped get different views heard. She formed the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association to help encourage and facilitate longer-term grassroots involvement.

What Whitehouse saw, perhaps at the time far more clearly than others, was the increasing availability of pornography would have terribly negative impacts for women and children especially. She also saw that undermining marriage and the family would benefit men more than women. She also warned that the sexualisation of children would encourage paedophilia as well.

Look now at the staggeringly high rates of family breakdown (which do disproportionately impact women and children) and it would appear Mary Whitehouse was right. In our society, marriage has been undermined – by recent divorce law changes, by a tax system that refuses to acknowledge marriage, and by the reality that marriage has been redefined. Look also at the mere existence of a National Register of Child Sex Offenders and it’s hard not to see how prophetic Whitehouse was.

Yet in her day and age she was heavily criticised. It was all too easy for some to dismiss her as old-fashioned; ‘behind the times’, ‘regressive’, ‘anti-women’s liberation’ were just some of the verbal missiles aimed at her. Her campaigning work brought her into conflict with proponents of the sexual revolution, feminists, children’s rights and the growing LGBT movements as well.

Was Mary Whitehouse right after all? It’s striking that in our own day, the sexualisation of young people has only increased. It’s now taking place online as well as offline. The sheer availability of online pornography is frightening. The porn industry is incredibly powerful and incredibly rich. It’s almost as if the consequences of the ‘free love’ revolution of the 1960s hasn’t quite brought the liberation it so heavily promised.

Now, there are feminist groups who are deeply concerned about the porn revolution and its impact on women and girls especially. Some campaigners are beginning to join the dots between family breakdown and its wider consequences for children and their life chances. The UK Government, as part of its new Online Safety Bill, has included a new legal requirement for age verification controls on all types of online pornography – something CARE has specifically been campaigning for.

So, yes, in some crucial ways, Whitehouse was right. What are we to learn from this? I think it reminds us that by being bravely faithful and consistent, we can sow seeds which go on to have an impact long after we’ve moved on. Whitehouse believed in what she was doing, and conviction and belief are powerful allies when seeking change. God calls us to be faithful and He calls us to hold the line, even when the pressure is intolerable. Jesus Himself warned us that the world will hate us. Whitehouse endured scorn and fury but, fascinatingly, she did help secure positive, lasting change.