Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
Granted, although even given hormones working class children had to grow up a lot earlier than they do now.
It's impossible to know. In fiction, I think there's a zigzag between portraying that illegitimacy happened rarely because of morality and the more recent trope where girls/women are having sex without a thought to the possible consequences, both of which seem unlikely.
I'm projecting here, but my own take is that morality while it mattered was less important than the practical consideration of the catastrophic nature of an unintended pregnancy, which worked to keep girls "good" into the 1960s. Somewhat earlier, another limiting factor had to be opportunity. With little leisure and no privacy, the deed must have been harder to achieve. Aside from general meanness, a reason for servant girls to share a room probably was to limit the opportunities for a young master to find recreation there. But if said young master forced himself on a girl, what could she do? She had no options at all other than finding another situation, which might not be easy to achieve and might be no different.
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When I was reading Pepy's diary I noticed that while he had no qualms about messing around with attractive women of a lower class who needed his good will, it seemed that he normally refrained from activities that might have led to children.
This provides another alternative to being either being completely chaste or completely without a thought to possible consequences.