In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.

These lines come from Cole Porter’s song “Anything Goes,” written for the Broadway musical of the same name (1934). Porter was known for urbane, witty lyrics that satirized modern manners and shifting sexual mores. In the early 1930s—amid Prohibition’s aftermath, the Jazz Age’s cultural legacy, and the looser social codes often associated with cosmopolitan nightlife—Porter’s lyric contrasts “olden days” prudery with contemporary permissiveness. The song is delivered as a comic catalogue of changing standards, using breezy rhymes and topical references to suggest that what once scandalized polite society has become commonplace.

The stanza humorously dramatizes moral and cultural relativism: standards of decency are shown as historically contingent rather than fixed. By choosing the mild image of a “glimpse of stocking” as yesterday’s scandal, Porter underscores how quickly taboos can erode; the punchline “Anything goes” turns social change into a refrain of amused resignation. The phrase “God knows” adds mock-solemn emphasis, implying that even traditional moral authority can only shrug at the pace of modern life. Overall, the lyric is less a manifesto than a satirical observation—celebrating sophistication while gently mocking both prudishness and modern excess.