about mental-hygiene.org

I have always found some people’s drive to change the world fascinating. In many cases it’s a force for good, and creates positive change. In many more cases, it is a force to hold back new ideas, to reject differences, and to assert conformity.

When looking at cultural remnants such as the “mental hygiene” educational films shown to the baby boomer generation, it’s easy for the modern viewer to point and laugh. How silly and dated their opinions are, how ridiculous the narration and acting! But sadly, having to watch these films was probably horrible back in the day. Imagine being the awkward teenager having to sit through childish instructions on how important it is to wash your hair, to never flip out at your parents. Hell, I even remember seeing ancient mental hygiene movies during driver’s ed in the 1990’s — scaring teens with gory accident footage apparently never goes out of style. (I don’t think it had much impact on my driving style, but I won’t ever forget the images of decapitation from tailgating a semi.)

On this site, I hope to comment on bits of classic “education” that I find, both text and film if possible. On a lighter side, most of this stuff really is worth a good laugh. But from a serious perspective, I think a lot of the social constraints that we pride ourself on overcoming are really not gone, they’re just shifted away from the mainstream societal goals. Abstinence-only education, for example, is a very old concept (that continues to not work), continually repackaged for new generations of teens. So I will also sometimes comment on modern examples that echo their ancestors.

Thanks

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Disclaimer

I am stuck with my personal perspective. I’m white, female, Jewish-by-choice, in my thirties, heterosexual and married and a mother. I can’t claim to know what it’s like to be a racial minority, or gay, or a teenage boy. I will simply do my best to be open-minded, which is something that the original mental hygiene purveyors did not consider a priority. If you disagree, drop me a note or comment on whatever blog post bugs you*. I’d love to hear about “old” versus “new” perspectives from other countries as well; again, due to who I am, I know mostly about American societal past (with a bit of Britain and Canadian thrown in). I do know some stuff about ancient and medieval European history, but that’s a little bit old for what I expect this blog to discuss.

* I reserve the right to ignore you and/or not allow your point of view to be shared… this is, after all, my site ;)