I was born in 1952, so if you do the math, I was around at just about the right time to fall madly in love with girls (a little older than I) on shows like Shindig and Hullabaloo. We all did, boys my age. Some of the dances included the Watusi, the Jerk, the Swim, the Slauson, the Frug. I danced ineptly but admired those with ept.

Especially those girls on TV.

But it occurred to me today that they were marvelous dancers who were exploited. That doesn’t mean that I still can’t have fun watching them. But it does remind me of how much the world has changed and how ingrained in us was a certain dismissiveness of women.

I got a little sadder thinking about this, about me fifty-five years ago, but the girls in the 1970 clip in the included in this video looked sad to me, too. Something has changed by 1970. If it was painful, it was probably needed, too.