Della Street and Betty Jones: Attitudes Don't Work on a Timeline

One of the more irritating attitudes that occurs in every age is the chronocentric insistence that everything has led up to know. There is consequently, an insistence on streamlined history which moves from Point A to Point B to Point C to US!

It was the best of the times. It was the worst of times. 

There is consequently an inability to perceive or acknowledge that things are not automatically better or worse just because of the year or because a theory. 

One common story, for instance, is that women once upon a time were so hemmed in and exploited and powerless than anything post-1950 must be better. 

I recently watched Perry Mason (1957-1966) and Barnaby Jones (1973-1980). What struck me is that Della Street, played by  Barbara Hale, is a much more put-together and independent character than Betty Jones, played by Lee Merrweather. 

Della from Day 1 is direct, outspoken, involved with the investigations. She leaves the office to find witnesses, pick up items. She occasionally confronts bad guys (though she rarely fights them). She is down-to-earth, uncowed: a great role model! 

In the first season of Barnaby Jones, Betty Jones takes messages, gets worried, falls for a conman, and gets kidnapped. 

Seriously? 

Maybe she gets more to do later on.

But the difference here indicates that a tough, no-nonsense woman is not the product of an increase in years or "modernism." Good grief, Portia from Shakespeare has more oomph to her than Betty Jones!

I won't say that nothing every improves over time--like understanding of the human body or legal rights in certain contexts. 

Only, most things don't work to a pattern, what with changing politics, changing religious beliefs, changing opportunities, black swans, changing stigmas, and so on. Things can change in one area but not in another. They can change and then revert. They can change, then have entirely unintended consequences. 

Even with the human body, people should be humble enough to think, Maybe things are more complicated.