THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION:

Over the last three and a half centuries, the meaning and place of sexuality in American life have undergone great changes…

- sexuality moved from a family-centered reproductive system (in the Colonial Era)

- to a 19^th century emphasis on romantic love and intimacy

- to the contemporary emphasis on commercialized sexuality; and where sexual relations are expected to provide personal identity (it became a part of self-discovery) and individual happiness apart from reproduction

The modern sexual revolution began in the 1920s and extended over the next several decades of the 20^th century. Three components/stages of this sexual revolution:

1. the growth of a “singles” culture, predating the rise of political and cultural protest, that accepted sexual activity between unmarried women and men; this period began in the early 1900s and included the influences of WWI and the growth of the consumer economy (remember consumerism!!!)
2. women began to demand that this singles culture be readjusted to meet their needs; this period began in the 1950s and 1960s and included the Beat Generation and the Hippie Movement
3. the Gay Movement questioned the exclusive definition of sexual freedom in terms of heterosexuality

The history of the Sexual Revolution can be seen in the social, demographic, and economic changes that were occurring in the United States during this time:

- the rising age of marriage

- the educational convergence of women and men

- women’s growing autonomy

- the invention of birth control methods that are independent of coitus (the pill and the IUD)

- the sheer rise in the absolute numbers of singles as the baby-boom generation reached sexual maturity

- the revulsion of a politically active generation against what they saw as the hypocrisy of their elders

Along with the factors mentioned above, advertising has been an important factor contributing to sexual permissiveness!!!