Sexual revolution in 1960s United States

The sexual revolution in the 1960s United States was a social and cultural movement that resulted in liberalized attitudes toward sex and morality. In the 1960s, social norms were changing as sex became more widely discussed in society. Erotic media, such as films, magazines, and books, became more popular and gained widespread attention across the country. These changes reveal that sex was entering the public domain, and sex rates, especially among young people, could no longer be ignored.

With the introduction of the pill and second-wave feminism, women gained more control over their bodies and sexuality during the 1960s. Women could engage in sex without the risk of pregnancy. At the same time, many women involved in the feminist movement questioned the traditional gender and sex roles ascribed to them. Women's liberation movements sought to free women from social and moral confines.

Developments in the gay rights movement occurred during the same period, such as public demonstrations and protests to challenge discrimination against sexuality. Some activists began celebrating homosexuality, but the movement did not really take off until the Stonewall riots of 1969.

Changes in social norms

In America, a dramatic shift in traditional ideas about sex and sexuality arose from a number of social changes. In 1969, ''Blue Movie'', directed by Andy Warhol, premiered. Films as early as the 1880s contained sexual images and some pornographic content was filmed in the 1920s, but ''Blue Movie'' was the first erotic film to gain wide theatrical release. This film helped to introduce “porno chic” and the Golden Age of Porn (1969-1984). Pornography became a publicly discussed topic that was taken seriously by critics.

Magazines depicting erotic and nude content increased in circulation at this time as well. After ''Playboy''’s founding in 1953, the magazine was selling 1.1 million copies by 1960. By 1970, it was circulating 5.4 million copies worldwide, and it peaked in circulation in 1972 with 7.16 million copies and “a quarter of all American male college students reportedly reading it in the 1970s.” The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago in 1960, and members were served food and drink by Playboy Bunnies. Clubs were later opened in 23 other U.S. cities. Writer and prominent feminist of the time, Gloria Steinem, went undercover at a Playboy Club in 1963 and found that women were often mistreated and exploited.

In the 1960s, bans on erotic novels were challenged, and the standard of what should be banned was changed. In ''Grove Press, Inc. v. Gerstein'' (1964), the Grove Press published Henry Miller’s novel ''Tropic of Cancer'', which was banned in the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the ban on the novel in a 5-4 vote because it was decided it had literary merit and was not “utterly without redeeming social value.” In a similar case, ''Memoirs v. Massachusetts'' (1966), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decided that John Cleland’s '' The Life and Adventures of Miss Fanny Hill'' was obscene. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that ruling in a 6-3 vote and stated that this book was also not “utterly without redeeming social value.” This ruling made banning books with sexual content more difficult because any books with literary merit or social importance could no longer be considered obscene in the United States.

Despite the changing social norms, it is unclear if rates of sex increased in revolutionary proportions during the 1960s. Daniel Scott Smith studied sex rates and saw increases in certain groups between 1940 and 1967. As John Levi Martin explains, “cottconcludes that members of the upper classes, whom the female-college-student surveys tend to study, change later than the rest of the population, and it is when they finally rejoin their lower-class counterparts in sexual mores and behavior that we suddenly believe a sexual revolution is upon us. This argument is supported by historical work that suggests that premarital sex – and not simply sex with a fiancé – was by no means uncommon among urban working-class women before the 1920s.”

In addition, Phillips Cutright examined data about the age of first menses in the Western population and illegitimacy levels from 1940 to 1968, and he found that no changes of revolutionary proportions occurred. The only “substantial increases” were among young whites with their future husbands. He determined that the age of the first menses in women decreased from 1940 to 1968 likely due to better nutrition, which suggests that earlier “low illegitimacy rates among young girls were due to biological factors as well as to the social controls depressing sexual activity.” He suggests that “the myth of an abstinent past and promiscuous present is highly exaggerated.”

The Pill

Beginning in 1960, “The Pill” provided many women with an affordable way to avoid pregnancy. Before the pill was introduced many women did not look for long-term jobs because they would need to leave the job market when they became pregnant. Abortion was illegal and presented many health risks if performed. After birth control, a higher percentage of women graduated from school and college, which allowed them to later gain professional careers.

With the invention of the pill, women could safely control their sexuality and fertility. Previous methods of birth control existed, including herbal remedies and early condoms, which were less protective and not legalized. Birth control “was female-controlled, simple to use, highly effective, and most revolutionary of all, it separated reproduction and contraception from the sexual act.” While critics claimed that the pill would lead to immorality, it allowed women to gain some freedoms in making choices about their bodies.

The pill was originally endorsed by the government as a form of population control to counter overpopulation. President Lyndon Johnson’s social reform policy, The Great Society, aimed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. By 1960, the Food and Drug Administration had licensed the drug. 'The Pill', as it came to be known, was extraordinarily popular, and despite worries over possible side effects, by 1962, an estimated 1,187,000 women were using it. Despite its popularity with women, the pill was still a controversial subject. In 1964, it was illegal in eight states, including Connecticut and New York.

The pill was easier to obtain for married women, especially after ' 'Griswold v. Connecticut'' (1965). The U.S. Supreme Court sided with Estelle Griswold, the executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and stated that the right to privacy for married couples was granted in the U.S. Constitution. While this ruling made it easier for married women to obtain birth control, unmarried women who requested gynecological exams and oral contraceptives were often denied or lectured on sexual morality. Those women who were denied access to the pill often had to visit several doctors before one would prescribe it to them. In 1972, the Supreme Court extended these rights to unmarried couples in ''Eisenstadt v. Baird''.

Criticisms of the Pill

Criticisms of the pill developed among certain groups, Black populations in particular. The origin of the pill as a form of population control for those living in poverty created distrust among groups that were systematically impoverished. Robert Chrisman argued that birth control could now be used as genocide with racist motives, saying “contraception, abortion, sterilization are now major weapons in the arsenal of the U.S.’ Agency for International Development.” Attendees at the Black Power Conference in Newark, New Jersey

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