It means he was from a generation when all this was considered good parenting and normal and his father raised him the same way too.
I'm sorry you had to go through that though. It's horrible.
Things changed when it became illegal to physically inflict children any pain. My country was among the first to introduce that new law.
And then came the 90's and society as a whole changed and started focusing on equality and human rights and that includes children's rights. As result came a new way to care and foster children where empathy and the child's needs and safety comes first.
This has then developed further to lgbtq kids and to give the child their right to their identity. Which is today's most common needs for trans children.
I'm not saying what your dad did was okay. But where we come from and what we are surrounded with impacts how we respond to the world to a certain level.
