Sleuthing through Trove yesterday for articles on courtesy or good manners, it was interesting to see the results: a mere 46,061 containing the phrase “good manners” and 5391 including both “good manners” and courtesy. Plainly these issues were prominent discussion points over the decades.
So today I thought I’d share some of these with you. It’s fascinating to see how differently we view some aspects such as how men and women see each other, and interact, and how they changed over time.
The World’s News 2 July 1921
Australian Women’s Weekly 29 Oct 1938 p17
Australian Women’s Weekly 4 Dec 1959
Australian Women’s Weekly 11 Aug 1982.
And there you have it, a steady progression of change in “good manners” and courtesy.
I do feel for those poor “New Australian” men regarded, almost inevitably, as foreigners in 1952. Never let it be said that Australians are anything other than egalitarian…or not.
