1975 diary shocker

[NorthernGirl1975]

As part of my PhD I'm looking at primary sources. I'm currently reading a diary from 50 years ago. The writer is obsessed with how she looks, what she eats and weighs and whether or not she's pretty.

There are lots of references to getting male attention. She goes to a summer gala with her friend and talks about the ice cream man being fit.

Then says she and the friend were chatted up on the bus and "Wolf whistled by two guys so that's not bad to say I'm a stone overweight". Earlier she's stated she weighs eight stone three. Says she's joining weight watchers as no guy would want to be seen around with a fat ugly girlfriend. Some guy who looks like Steve Harley keeps staring at her.

She went to buy a dress she liked but there was only one and it was a size 14 and too big. That's a 10 today isn't it? Christ knows what size she wanted to be. She's written measurements down as "35-25-35" and is obsessed with looking like one of Pam's People.

This is so depressing.

Yes, I'm from that time too - we never called a boy 'fit' - he was either 'gorgeous', 'good-looking' or just 'fanciable'!

https://share.google/rVJoBTVk1A8zGw0Qa

I came across this too, presumably a TV ad. Interesting when juxtaposed against I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke of the same era. All the sugar!

Is it Liz Jones's diary you're using? She's still knocking out the same old guff 50 years on in the Mail on Sunday. Alarming.

In 1975 she would have used the word fit to mean actually fit, not as the word is used today.

I was 13 in 1975. Everyone I knew was thin and muscular until we had a couple move into the house next door and we were shocked at how fat she was. In fact she would be about a size 18 now.

We had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, nothing until lunch which was our one cooked meal. Tiny by todays standards. Pudding but Mum might make a two pint sized jam sponge pudding with custard and that would last four of us three days and that was all we ate in a day. There might be a cup of ovaltine or hot milk at bedtime but not always. No snacks of crisps or chocolate or anything at all

Photos of us at the beach and you could see our ribs pretty much until puberty and even then we were skinny.

Mum was physically bigger than us kids (5'6" compared to 5'3") but the waist on her wedding dress when she married my Dad in 1952 was 23". Mum was 25 when she got married but had had a war baby at the age of 18.

To have a 9lb baby but then have a waist of 23" seven years later is incredible by todays standards but we didn't endlessly stuff our faces all day with carbs. It was meat and veggies or nothing basically.

At school in the 60s/70s, we used to have 'weighing and measuring' at the beginning and end of the term. We were mostly all slim but I can't remember ever watching my weight - we just ate good food! I think there were only about two overweight girls in my form.

Ha no, but I guess they're the same age. The diary woman was born 1959. Thanks for the Liz mention however, she's going to be included now!

no it was Pan

Now I don't think you'd find such writing in a 16 year old's journal but the whole Love Island, influencers etc mindset has me wondering if things have gone back in time
those programmes are just full of girls desperate to attract male attention. Its just sold as a mean to love oneself better but the end goal is still the same.

As someone who was young in the 60s/70s, I don’t see what’s so massively different now. At least we didn’t all have fake nails done every few weeks, or have Botox, lip fillers, butt lifts, Brazilians, etc.
Please don’t anyone tell me these aren’t all done for the sake of beautifying one’s appearance! And don’t anyone tell me it all has absolutely nothing to do with making oneself attractive to men.

I recently read Jane Austen’s letters and I’m sure there’s a reference to her or someone else’s weight in one of them.
Of course, if you put on (or lost) weight in those days it would have been a great hassle in adjusting your clothes to fit. Not to mention stays, when they were worn.

Equally depressing is a newspaper article that I found under some floorboards in my house when doing some renovation... the article was about how the "gender pay gap is soon to close"... and was written in the early 1970s 🤦‍♀️

And don’t anyone tell me it all has absolutely nothing to do with making oneself attractive to men
We used to live in a society where guilt made us take actions. Nowadays we live in a society based on denial that makes us take no actions. Neither is good, we need to value something in the middle.

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned but I recommend listening to the Mag Hags Podcast. Eye opening.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/mag-hags/id1767910742

Nothing has changed because thin girls still feel they look fat. I totally wasted being a size 8 in my teens and early 20s because I thought I was fat. Now I'm a 12 and honestly I am a bit fat but well into my 40s think I'm sort of OK.

Though I will add in now, that it’s pretty much exactly the same now. Women‘s concerns. Nothing changes. Just the way we say it. Nowadays it’s all got extra spin.

Eh?
The war ended long before 1975!

I was born in 1956.
I started nursing training in 1975.

There was abundant food available.

I do remember two of my nursing colleagues being obsessed with how much they weighed. They were both perhaps a little overweight. They were both paying some quack for medication - one was getting thyroxine and the other was getting some sort of injectable stuff. Whatever it was didn't work.

I recall the one on the injections was told that a meal of white bread, tomato soup and Edam cheese was healthy and was low in calories. 🤣

I was 17 in 1975.

A size 14 was definitely regarded as fat then.

I've just found my 1972 diary and these were my New Year Resolutions -

• To work hard so that I can enjoy a good, happy holiday, and
• To have a good time on holiday and during the rest of the year

Pretty dull, but no mention of weight! I was obviously obsessed with holidays!

If you''re new to Liz Jones, your jaw will drop. There are probably many threads on her, have a look just so you know what you're expecting.😀

I was born mid 50's and I don't recognise any of the stuff in the diary quote. We did talk about boys and who had gone how far but I don't remember anybody being anything but distainful of being wolfwhistled and we certainly didn't make comments about weight or size. I think maybe we forget that, just as we aren't all the same now, we weren't all the same then. Its the same as the "back in time for" series which was described as based on actual records of the time. I won't say I think they were used selectively to make a better program but even the records of the time are not the whole story.

“Pam’s People” 😹 I’ve spat my tea moment.

OP, have you read Jilly Cooper’s 70s books? Octavia, Bella, Imogen etc. The Common Years. They are full of stuff like this.

DM is 88 and still weight obsessed. The first thing out of her mouth when talking about anyone is weight. ‘She’s a big girl’ or ‘She’s got a good figure’ or ‘You’ve lost weight’ or (my personal favourite) ‘You’re filling those trousers)’

We rarely had biscuits at home and cakes or puddings were strictly once a week for Sunday tea time. My brother still remembers getting excited in the supermarket as a child because there were Jaffa cakes in the trolley - only for someone else to wheel the trolley away.

Joanna Lumley was sent for slimming injections at the Doctors. Pregnant women were told not to gain too much, ‘keep young & beautiful if you want to be loved’.

have to disagree.

In 1975 wouldn’t that depend on age? Size 14 at age 15 - unusual.