This is absolutely correct; it's as true in the UK as in the USA. Nobody can identify even the slightest window of time in which there really was a non-sexist,

This is absolutely correct; it's as true in the UK as in the USA. Nobody can identify even the slightest window of time in which there really was a non-sexist, colour-blind, non-homophobic, chill meritocratic consensus that did not need rebalancing. People often point at the 1980s but culture was extremely aware back then of the need to re-balance, but it did so in a kind of crass way at every level of the media. Token hiring was rampant, and used as a way to wash society's hands of the problem by laundering seemingly diverse figures into the unmodified culture, as long as they didn't question it too much. I would echo your point. Anyone here: when was it better, genuinely, for everyone, than it is now? When was it less complicated?