Pelini 1 Jake Pelini Ms.

Mazzant ENGL 137, Section 002 14 December 2012 The Sexiest Decade of Them All In the beginning, God created light. God thought the light was very good. And then it dawned on the 1960s. This decade was one of the most tumultuous in American history. A war against communism raged across the world. Locally, the United States saw the assassinations of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, some of the most respectable men in society. And to the individual, protests and war complicated the once black-and-white morals. Timothy Miller, expert in 20th century countercultural revolutions at the University of Kansas, writes that amid this confusion occurred a national, incredible communal explosion (Miller xiii). An essential aspect of this new community mentality was sex. From 1960 to 1970, American societys attitude toward sex outside of marriage became more lenient than ever before. Before the 1960s, traditional conservative precepts permeated American society. If one was not married, she was not to have sex, and most people abided by this rule. According to a 1937-1956 study by Alfred Kinsley of 18,000 Americans, only 27% of those born before 1900 and working or studying from 1900-1950 admitted to engaging pre-marital intercourse (Kinsey). While many have posed that people were simply denying having sex, other statistics show it was truly unlikely that they were engaging in it. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC found that only 7.9% of births were to unmarried women. This amounts to less than 50,000 births. In an age when abortion and birth control were both uncommon and sometimes

Pelini 2 dangerous, this number would have been almost impossibly low (Centers). Furthermore, unmarried citizens were not only abstaining from sex, but they were also hardly able to be intimate with someone of the opposite gender. The Ohio State University Department of History writes, [the youth] were unable to fully embrace the exaltation of intersexual social mingling (Shelton). Lack of interaction created a void of sexual repression. However, accompanying the dawn of a new decade was the freedom to freely engage in extra-marital intercourse (Miller 134). The 1960s opened the door to a more lenient view of sex. Perhaps a 1961 British Broadcasting News interview of an American female teenager best explains the new attitude: I dont believe in sleeping with everyone, but you meet someone, and youre crazy about that, so you go to bed with them And thats that (MacNeice). In a study by Time magazine done at the end of the 1960s, 66% of Americans now condoned premarital sex. A separate study conducted by Professor Miller confirmed that 66% were not opposed to teenagers engaging in intercourse (The 134). More single men and women were having sex and were not afraid of the consequences. The amount of premarital births more than tripled in just forty years, rising to 25.7% by the 1970s. Coupled with women who regularly practiced new forms of birth control, this amounted to approximately 2-2.3 million premarital pregnancies (Bachu). Clearly, a sexual revolution was had occurred. While it may seem obsolete, its far-reaching effects are still prominent today. Increased acceptance of sexual liberty continues to take its toll on modern society. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are more common in youth and adults. The CDC reports that more than 12 million new STD infections are reported annually. In addition to gonorrhea and syphilis, which had been prevalent before the 1960s, chlamydia, genital herpes, hepatitis, and human papilloma virus, among others, are now prevalent (Centers). However, Americans are

Pelini 3 not only suffering from new diseases. Unprepared and unready men and women, single and married, are facing mistimed pregnancies. A USA Today study shows that at least 4 in 10 pregnancies in every state are unexpected. In some states, this proportion reaches over 50% (Rubin). Such a life-altering change often leads many to choose between careers, families, and futures. Consequently, almost 1.25 million abortions are performed each year, an issue which polarizes American voters each election season (Bachu). While, in retrospect, the shift toward premarital sexual intercourse has had negative ramifications, the events that contributed to it seemed more auspicious. Two major catalysts were essential to the 1960s sexual revolution. First, the Hippie Movement encouraged experimentation with sexual liberty. Its ideology argued that sexual repression was counter-culture, a basic denial of self (The 55). In an attempt to seize the front page, reporters of hippie communes made the presence of nudity prominent in their stories (Miller 58). Hippie rock music grew in popularity, and artists such as Janis Joplin sang about making love to their audiences from the stage. Activist associations, such as the Sexual Freedom League, publicized communal orgies. A glamorized, hip idea of free love challenged the more traditional, austere sense of sexuality (A). And the youth were ready to accept change with open arms. According to the Independence Hall Association, Make love, not war became the slogan for emerging youth culture Public nudity became commonplace, and many youth experimented with sexual attitudes (Flower). Some girls saw Woodstock hippie women scantily glad, and took it as permission to forsake the bra and flaunt mini-skirts and transparent tops (A). Many men wanted to imitate the San Francisco Haight-Ashbury Street hippies by wearing beads and baring it all. Consequently, sex was in the atmosphere. Americans, embracing

Pelini 4 the mood, exiled themselves from society to form over 2,000 free love communes (Miller xviii). Meanwhile, while these communes were formed, sex was becoming safe. The 1960 Food and Drug Administration approval of the birth control pill further relaxed sexual tension (Nickolchev). This revolutionary medication allowed women to prevent and regulate the timing of pregnancies, and if it was used properly, was determined to be 97-99% effective (Knowles). In an interview with USA Today, Andrea Tone, a historian at McGill University, states, [Birth control] was relaxing moral standards. ... It was promoting promiscuity" (Rubin). Women now had power to have sex without fear of being socially stigmatized for potential consequences. The Public Broadcasting System reports that in 1963, just two years after its approval, nearly 2.3 women were prescribed the Pill, as it was soon nicknamed. In 1965, 6.5 million American women regularly took it, making it the most widely used form of birth control in the United States (Nickolchev). Therefore, at least this many women, and likely more, were having sex. Together with the rapidly spreading hippie ideals, the Pill promoted the idea that maybe having sex was not all that bad. After all, if unwed couples were having sex, at least they were being safe and smart. Thus, justification for open love and reduced risk of consequences stimulated the shift toward higher tolerance of sex outside of marriage. So where does this leave us today? More STDs are affecting more people, and approximately half of all pregnancies remain unexpected. Still, half of all 16-year-olds will have had sexual intercourse, and, by the time this same demographic is twenty, this figure will have increased to 85% (Furlong 79). Moreover, scientists and government officials disagree on how to address the issue. Can and should we attempt reverse this surge in more open sexuality? Dr. Arthur Caplan, a Bioethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says no. He argues that

Pelini 5 abstinence-only teaching was clearly unsuccessful in the 1960s, and it remains so today. He writes, It makes more sense to talk about maturity, love and mutual respect than to send an absolute message that sex is unacceptable outside marriage (Caplan). They argue that instead, schools should be teaching pregnancy and disease prevention. Regardless, it is clear that something must be done to curtail the disastrous effects more open sexuality is having. If not, the 1960s shift toward more open sexuality, will continue to negatively affect the futures of the unsuspecting American youth who embrace it.

Pelini 6 Works Cited Bachu, Amara. Trends in Premarital Childbearing, 1930-1994. Rept. no. P23-197. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 1999. Print. Caplan, Arthur, Ph.D. "Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Defies Common Sense." NBC News. National Broadcast System, 31 Oct. 2005. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9504871/ns/health-health_care/t/abstinence-only-sex-eddefies-common-sense/>. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States, 1940-99. Comp. Stephanie J. Ventura, M.A. and Christine A. Bachrach, Ph.D. Rept. no. 16. N.p.: n.p., 2000. Print. "Flower Power." U.S. History. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/57h.asp>. Furlong, Andy, and Fred Cartmel. Young People and Social Change: Individualization and Risk in Late Modernity. Bristol: Open UP, 1997. Print. Sociology and Social Change. Kinsey, Alfred, comp. Premarital Sex, American Females. N.p.: n.p., 1948. Print. Knowles, Jon. The Birth Control Pill: A History. Ed. Jennie Correia. N.p.: Katharine Dexter McCormick Library, 2010. Print. MacNeice, Louis, prod. Mosaic of Youth: Teenagers' View on Sex and Marriage. BBC. British Broadcasting Company, 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/marriage/10521.shtml>. Miller, Timothy. The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1999. Print. - - -. The Hippies and American Values. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1991. Print.

Pelini 7 Nickolchev, Alexandra. "A Brief History of the Birth Control Pill." PBS. Public Broadcasting System, 7 May 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-toknow/health/a-brief-history-of-the-birth-control-pill/480/>. Rubin, Rita. "The Pill: 50 Years of Birth Control Changed Women's Lives." USA Today [Tyson's Corner] 8 May 2010: n. pag. Print. Shelton, Mitchell, ed. "Sexuality: Limits of Change." Clash of the Cultures in the 1910s and 1920s. Ed. David Staley, Steven Conn, and Nicholas Breyfogle. Ohio State University Department of History, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. "A Trip Thru the Sixties: The Sexual Revolution." Hippyland. N.p., 23 Oct. 2002. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <http://www.hippy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=223>.