Tradition Goes Out the Window

A comic that mocks the Sexual Revolution

    Chivalry, abstinence, and tradition are three words that were no longer so strongly stressed by the 1960s, thanks to the Sexual Revolution.

    The Sexual Revolution was the liberation of established social and moral attitudes toward sex, as the women's liberation movement and developments in contraception instigated greater experimentation with sex, especially outside of marriage. 

    This new concept of sexual liberation was extremely controversial at the time; it included increased acceptance of sex outside of traditional heterosexual, monogamous relationships. Following closely behind were contraception, public nudity, the normalization of homosexuality, and the legalization of abortion. 

    Many question how this came about to begin with; there are a few theories, but it is argued that one specific cause alone can not be attributed with this large phenomenon. One suggested trigger for the modern revolution was the development of the birth control pill in 1960, which gave women access to easy and reliable contraception. Another theory is that the revolution was more directly influenced by the financial independence gained by the women who entered the workforce during and after World War II, making the revolution more about individual equality.

    Purchasing an aphrodisiac became "normal". Sado-masochism ("S&M") gained popularity, and "no-fault" unilateral divorce became legal and easier to obtain in many countries during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. All of these things became acceptable in a society that once ostracized women for having a baby with a man to whom she wasn't married to. 

    Other contributions that helped bring about this modern revolution of sexual freedom were the writings of Herbert Marcuse and Wilhelm Reich, who took the philosophy of Karl Marx and similar philosophers, and mixed together this chant for freedom of sexual rights in modern culture.

    America's perspective was rapidly changing, and many were on board. Beginning in San Francisco in the mid 1960s, a new culture of "free love" emerged, with thousands of young people becoming "hippies" who preached the power of love and the beauty of sex as part of ordinary life. This is part of a counterculture that exists to the present, for today "hippies" would not be very socially acceptable. 

    Free love continued in different forms throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s, but its more assertive manifestations ended abruptly, or disappeared from public view, in the mid-1980s when the public first became aware of AIDS, a deadly sexually transmitted disease.

    The Sexual Revolution permanently altered America's view on abstinence, homosexuality, and more controversial issues like abortion. Although it opened many doors, there are still debates going on to this day about whether or not many of these practices are morally just; and I don't see everyone agreeing on one set answer anytime in the near future. 

Sources: 

http://www.greenberg-art.com/.Toons/.Toons,%20favorites/qqxsgNew%20sexual%20revolution.gif
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=sexual+revolution&tbs=dfn:1&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=nDOHUMCwH4St0AHD1YCICA&ved=0CBsQkQ4&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=721d8d413178fdae&bpcl=35466521&biw=1211&bih=684
http://www.isis.aust.com/stephan/writings/sexuality/revo.htm
http://sixtiesbritain.co.uk/history/2010/05/25/history-the-oral-contraceptive-pill/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_nudity

http://www.exodusglobalalliance.org/whatishomosexualityp93.php
http://www.bpas.org/bpasyoungpeople/what-is-abortion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-fault_divorce
http://www.egs.edu/library/herbert-marcuse/biography/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/marx.html