Sexual Revolution and Counter Revolution

Social scientists continue to debate when and how the sexual revolution began. Certainly one of the pivotal events of the twentieth century was the development of oral contraceptives. The combined oral contraceptive pill, or simply "The Pill," gave women the ability to control their reproduction systems for the first time ever and is often credited with ushering in an era of sexual inhibition. However, contemporary research has revealed that American society's attitudes about sex had been changing for decades. The work of Alfred Kinsey in the 1940s and 1950s revealed that sexual freedom and nonnormative sexual behavior were actually quite prevalent in the 20 years before the 1960s. However, some believe that the liberal sexual practices of the 1960s and ’70s have exacted a cost on society and contributed to the spread of STDs and AIDS. As a result, a sexual counterrevolution began during the 1980s.

Keywords Comstock Law; Counter Culture; Free Love Movement; Non-Normative Sexual Practices; Oral Contraceptives; Patriarchal Society; Sexual Liberalization; Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD); The Pill

The Sexual Revolution & Counter Revolution

Overview

The sexual revolution in the United States is not easily pinpointed to a specific set of events or decade. Although the phrase almost invariably elicits the 1960s era of free love, in actuality more relaxed attitudes toward sexuality began to emerge long before the 1960s. To fully understand the liberalization of sexual attitudes in the US, one must begin with examining a number of events and influences dating back to the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The Late Nineteenth Century

In the US, the nineteenth century gave rise to the nuclear family. During this time, men worked outside the home and women largely stayed at home to attend to domestic duties and raise children. A growing middle class arose as populations migrated to cities and gained greater affluence. Middle-class adherence to the Victorian ideals of male strength, female purity, and restrained sexual desire was common (Williams, 2002). While nonmarital and nonreproductive sex was publicly condemned, male patronage of prostitutes was tolerated (Williams, 2002).

By the 1870s, women's rights activists, temperance reformers, and members of the Protestant clergy aligned themselves in an effort to promote a "social purity" movement. These constituents advocated for a number of divergent social causes including ending prostitution and encouraging family planning, or, as they called it, voluntary motherhood (Williams, 2002). Another movement around the same time was led by utopians and proponents of free love. These cohorts opposed religious authority and largely rejected the idea of traditional marriage. Victoria Woodhall was one outspoken opponent of traditional marriage, which she saw as perpetuating the oppression of women. She supported a free love model that she believed would permit men and women to join as equal sexual and life partners outside of the confines and regulations she associated with traditional marriage.

A backlash to the free love movement was lead by Anthony Comstock. He was responsible for establishing the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and the 1873 Comstock Law, which banned the mailing of "indecent and lascivious" materials, including medical information on reproduction. Comstock also opposed the free love advocates by demanding that authorities arrest them and any others who supported their liberal views of sexuality.

The Early Twentieth Century

During the twentieth century, urban populations continued to grow as US middle-class values shifted from the Victorian emphasis on thrift, sobriety, and self-denial, to more modern ones of personal consumption and self-gratification (Williams, 2002). Women began entering the workforce in greater numbers at the turn of the new century, and many also entered college. Recreation and leisure activities became much more important to the middle class and were less likely to be church supervised. Young people began to enjoy the liberty to meet without supervision or chaperones.

For most women at the beginning of the twentieth century, sex was largely procreative because, aside from abstinence in marriage, effective birth control was, for the most part, unavailable to women. However, as time passed, women began to actively look for other ways to prevent pregnancy. From the 1910s onward, Margaret Sanger was a tireless advocate for providing women with birth control options and the power to control their reproduction.

Many researchers and historians believe that the greatest shift toward more liberal views of sexuality began after World War I. Involvement in a foreign war had exposed many servicemen to Europe's more liberal sexual attitudes, and nonmarital sex was not uncommon during the war. Condoms were available to GIs, as was penicillin, which was termed the "VD Magic Bullet" (McPartland, 1947).

All of these influences lead to what some have called "America's first sexual revolution" during the 1920s. Rising economic affluence and increased leisure time triggered increased consumption and consumerism, and led people away from rigid Victorian social values. Money was the "ingredient for sophistication" during the carnival of the 1920s. More and more Americans owned automobiles, which offered unprecedented freedom and mobility. And when women entered the workforce in greater numbers and started earning money for themselves, they began to enjoy an unprecedented level of freedom and equality. As the decade wore on, literature, movies, and advertising began taking on sexual overtones (Williams, 2002).

However, despite the era's mood of sexual liberalism, mainstream society adhered, at least publicly, to conservative views of women's sexuality, perpetuating a double standard (Williams, 2002). Sexual attitudes had begun to shift in the nineteenth century, but, for the most part, American society retained traditional views of sexuality through the first quarter of the twentieth century. The Great Depression held sexual standards in check, though some have argued that after years of war and economic instability, the country was ready to adopt more liberal attitudes (McPartland, 1947).

The 1940s & 1950s

Alan Petigny has suggested that the sexual revolution did not start in the 1960s, but rather really took shape during the 1940s and ’50s. The "silent generation" of this period did not talk much about sex but that didn't mean that they were not having any, according to Petigny (2005). His study of US Census Bureau statistics on premarital pregnancy and single motherhood between 1940 and1960 pointed to the "unexpected conclusion that there was much more sexual activity during those decades than Americans were willing to admit" (Petigny, 2005, p. 7).

After World War II, according to Petigny (2005), more liberal attitudes on topics from "child rearing to religion" took hold in American society. On the surface, public attitudes may not have overtly reflected this liberalization, but Petigny found that people's actions often did not reflect their admitted moral values. He referenced Albert Kinsey's findings on American sexuality as proof that people's actions tended to be inconsistent with societal rules. For example, the 1940s and 1950s saw a dramatic increase in premarital pregnancies while the public continued to espouse traditional views of sexuality that disapproved of premarital sex (Petigny, 2005).

Additionally, researchers speculate that premarital sex during this period would have been much higher if people had not married at such young ages. On average, during the 1950s, women married around the age of 20 and men around the age of 22. Cultural historian Stephanie Coontz offered that "when it came to sexual intercourse, young people were not taught how to ‘say no’, they were simply handed wedding rings" (Coontz, 1992, p. 12, as quoted in Petigny, 2004).

According to Petigny, the differences between postwar sexuality and the 1960s free love era boils down to dissimilarities between convention and conduct. Though Americans' sexual behavior was more or less the same during the two periods, during the 1960s, Americans were much more willing to publicly acknowledge their behavior. People talked more openly about their behaviors and views, and as a result, public morality fell into step with personal conduct. In effect, public opinion converged with private morals (Petigny, 2005).

The Kinsey Report

Alan Petigny's use of US Census data and demographic statistics to extrapolate sexual trends in the 1940s and 1950s is quite different than the methodology that Alfred Kinsey used to study American sexuality during the same two decades. According to Richard Rhodes (1997), Kinsey's more than "18,000 sexual histories [are] the most extensive record of human sexual behavior ever compiled" (¶ 2).

In 1938, Kinsey, a biologist, found himself lecturing on sex education at Indiana University. When he found that existing research did not provide him with enough information for his lectures, he took it upon himself to start collecting the necessary data and began conducting surveys as a means of assessing the sexual behavior of American men and women.

Kinsey's findings were published in two volumes: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). His report shocked the nation: it revealed that homosexual relationships, oral sex, masturbation, and premarital sex were all prevalent behaviors among Kinsey's subjects (Rhodes, 1997). These reports on the sexual behavior of men and women provided one way for Americans to make sense of the broader cultural shifts occurring after World War II (Meyer, 2006)

However, as important as they were at the time, Kinsey's findings do not hold up to scrutiny by modern scientific standards. Though his sample was large, Kinsey's subjects were predominantly white, middle class, college educated, and under 35. Further, he favored full samples of large groups in lieu of randomizing (Stossel, 1997). When the report was published, though, it was a significant benchmark in the quantitative study of sexuality in US society ("Alfred C. Kinsey Contributions to American Sexuality," 2002). In the prime years immediately following World War II, Kinsey and his key associates were interviewing several thousand men and women a day (Rhodes, 1997).

While sociologists and historians admit that Kinsey's data collection methods are questionable, the fact remains that his findings helped to open minds and prompt discussion about American sexual behavior. Prior to Kinsey's research, most experts had focused their attentions on what were understood to be marginal sexualities (Meyer, 2006). Kinsey's work shed light on what were, in actuality, normative sexual practices and helped experts, as well as the American public, better understand sexuality.

The prevalence of premarital sex is difficult to measure. Petigny found that up to 90% of the American public would not answer surveys about their sexual histories, and people who were willing to answer them were generally less inhibited about sex than those who refused to answer such questions, a state of affairs that can easily lead to skewed results (2004). Further complicating matters is the fact that, even when willing to answer questions about their sexual history, respondents may not be entirely truthful (Petigny, 2004). For example, in the mid-1960s, students were asked to fill out a questionnaire about nonnormative behaviors like masturbating, hitting their partner, using pornography, and engaging in same-sex relations. When, after completing the questionnaire, the students were told that they would be compensated for participation only if they consented to take a polygraph, they all changed at least one of their answers on the questionnaire. Such a finding suggests that surveys and polls about sexual behavior should be approached with a great deal of skepticism (Petigny, 2004).

Without focusing too much on the weakness of his research methods, Albert Kinsey is still credited with having a huge impact on the social and cultural values in America and around the world. Findings by both Kinsey and Petigny suggest that the years between 1940 and 1960 set the stage for the overt sexual revolution that would explode in the 1960s.

The 1960s: Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll

At the start of the 1960s, condoms were the most reliable and widely available contraceptive method, though it was generally men's responsibility to use them. The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), which quickly became known as simply "the Pill," was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 1960, and gave women nearly complete control over their reproductive systems (Cunningham, 1990). The Pill was almost 100% effective in preventing pregnancy, and has been credited with ending the baby boom (Cunningham, 1990). It wasn't difficult for women to enumerate the Pill's benefits. With it, they could

• Control if and when they would have children, giving them the option to seriously pursue careers.

• Focus on their own sexual pleasure without worrying about the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy.

• Choose to have sex more often. Married women on the pill reported having sex up to 39% more often than women who were not on the pill (Cunningham, 1990).

Many women also felt that the Pill, and discussions about it, paved the way for public dialog about sex. (Cunningham, 1990)

In the years since oral contraceptives gave women control over their reproductive lives, they have also changed the country's social fabric. "The Pill has become a right of passage for many of the daughters of the first women to enjoy the [benefits] of the Pill in the early 1960s," wrote Ann Marie Cunningham (1990). The Pill may have been responsible for ushering in the era of the "one night stand," and ironically, some suggest that it may have benefitted men as much as women. While the Pill was discussed openly and publicly, many women believed that men would assume that women would "take care" of protection. Some women also worried that the Pill decreased the incentive for men to commit to monogamous relationships.

The availability of oral contraceptives was just one factor in liberalizing sexuality in the 1960s. The decade was shaped by profound social changes as well as young people embracing their sexuality in all aspects of their lives. Charles Taylor (2007) offered four characteristic views of the period:

• Sensuality as a good in and of itself.

• Men and women as equal sexes whose relationships could be free from traditional gender roles.

• Sexuality and the sex act as liberating.

• Sexuality as a major part of one's identity.

The 1960s were about much more than the right to express and act upon sexual freedoms, but the right to sexually express oneself was important from a political standpoint. Women, gay men, lesbians, and African Americans all viewed themselves a residing on the lower levels of the political and social hierarchies. The 1960s gave life to the counterculture, women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, and the civil rights movement. For women, gay men, and lesbians, the personal was political when it came to expressing sexuality in ways that empowered them. Politically, many liberals welcomed broader rights for gay people and women and access to new contraceptives. In general, most liberals also supported sex education initiatives that would keep people informed about their new choices and liberties (Stossel, 1997).

Decades later, the 1960s and 1970s are viewed as decades of great sexual freedom and experimentation. During the final two decades of the twentieth century, many people began to calculate the costs that have been exacted upon many of the same groups that benefitted from the greater political and social freedoms that were gained in the 1960s and 1970s. The term "the sexual counterrevolution" has been used to describe the "reining in" of sexually promiscuous behavior that occurred during the 1980s and 1990s.

The Sexual Counterrevolution

In the age of AIDS, the idea of a sexual revolution can seem archaic and dangerous (Cunningham, 1990). It stands to reason for many that the liberal tenor of the 1960s and 1970s would eventually elicit a backlash against the policies and cultural trends that came about during these tumultuous decades. In general, social conservatives believed that easy access to contraceptives and a general acceptance of premarital sex caused a moral weakening across society. The ideological debates between social conservatives and liberals played out along cultural, political, and religious fronts simultaneously (Stossel, 1997).

Conservatives suggested that promiscuous sexual practices had compromised traditional social and religious bonds and loosened social mores. They argued, too, that the sexual revolution had resulted in upsurge in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and pointed to this as well as the AIDS crisis to bolster their arguments against sex outside of marriage. When a 1982 Time magazine article linked AIDS to promiscuity, the sexual revolution effectively ground to a halt as both social conservatives and public health officials decried the dangers of promiscuous sex (Stossel, 1997). At the same time, political and religious conservatives also renewed their efforts to curtail the moral relativism they associated with the liberal acceptance of legalized abortion and same-sex relationships (Stossel, 1997).

Gay men were particularly affected by the sexual counterrevolution. Though they had made major political and social gains during the 1960s and 1970s, the HIV/AIDS crisis presented new challenges. Initially, conservatives succeeded in convincing a large portion of the public that HIV/AIDS was a "gay disease," despite the fact that, worldwide, 90% of HIV/AIDS patients are heterosexual, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Anxiety & the Modern Sexual Revolution

Margaret Gullette's (2008) essay "Then and Now: What Have the Sexual 'Revolutions' Wrought?" looked both backward at her own early sexual history and forward to what her daughter's will be. According to Gullette, many feminists look at their youth as the "bad old days" and "they [want to] imagine that the [women's] movement's hard work enabled women who came after us to enjoy sex more" (2008, ¶3). Watching with concern, the author and her contemporaries with heterosexual daughters saw a whole host of threats that have persisted despite the sexual freedoms and liberties that women have won.

• Body Image: Girls start disliking their bodies at a young age in patriarchal and consumerist societies as they judge themselves against a single, ideal body type.

• Sex Education: Many girls and boys learn little about contraception since 23% of American schools teach only abstinence, according to 2012 findings by the Guttmacher Institute.

• Fear: Girls may be afraid that they might not be sexually adept. Girls who are openly homosexual may fear that they will be stigmatized, and girls who enjoy sex often worry about being labeled "sluts."

The Pill, which held so much promise in affording women reproductive control and sexual freedom, can still protect women from unintended pregnancies. However, it cannot protect women from STDs or AIDS. It is ironic that in the decades since the Pill became available, many people are realizing that condoms are again necessary. Gullette's essay closed with questioning just how far women have come in becoming sexually equal to men. Her findings revealed that, for many women coming of age, their first sexual experience is marked by coercion or abuse (Gullette, 2008).

Conclusion

The American sexual revolution did not happen in one decade but instead grew steadily throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century and gained momentum between and after the World Wars. The gains in sexual rights and freedoms made during these decades served as a foundation for those of the following decades. Women's entry into the workforce en masse precipitated the women's rights movement, which played a major role in helping women gain control over their sexuality. At the same time, the World Wars exposed many American men to more liberal European sexual attitudes, and once these men returned to the US, these attitudes infiltrated American culture. Additionally, the growing affluence of the American middle class created a consumer society that led people to discard Victorian values. The rise of political and social movements during the 1960s also empowered a number of minority groups to more freely express their sexuality.

However, this liberalization met sustainable political, religious, and cultural opposition over the next decades. Grieg (2006) wrote, "The sexual lives of both women and men are now caught between the forces of social conservatism and religious fundamentalism on the one hand and, on the other, the pressures of commodification within sexual cultures under capitalism. Sexual pleasure, liberty and autonomy are too often crushed between this rock and a hard place" (p. 87).

Terms & Concepts

Comstock Law: Named for Anthony Comstock, who in 1873 passed legislation prohibiting the mailing of obscene, lewd, lascivious, or indecent writing or advertisements.

Counterculture: Generally refers to the 1960s movement against conservative social and moral values.

Free Love Movement: Sought to separate the state from sexual matters such as marriage. It reached its height during the late nineteenth century, and one of its major proponents was Victoria Woodhall.

Nonnormative Sexual Practices: Sexual behavior that falls outside the realm of traditional heterosexual intercourse (e.g., same-sex relations).

Oral Contraceptives: Often called simply 'the Pill' and widely regarded as one of the most effective forms of birth control, these pills deliver hormones that prevent ovulation. They were first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1964. They do not protect users against STDs.

Patriarchal Society: A society in which men are, by and large, the most powerful members. Within such a society, households are usually headed by men, and fathers are primarily responsible for the economic welfare of the family unit.

Sexual Liberalization: This term refers to the general and incremental shift away from traditional ideas about sex, to ones in which an individual has rights over his or her sexuality.

Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD): A disease that is transmitted through sexual intercourse, oral sex, or other sexual contact; also called a sexually transmitted infection (STI).

Bibliography

AIDS and the sexual counter revolution. (1987, July 3). National Review. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_/ai_5024033

Alfred C. Kinsey - Contributions to American sexuality. (2002). Sinclair Intimacy Institute. Retrieved April 12, 2008, from http://health.discovery.com/centers/sex/sexpedia/alfredckinsey.html

Cunningham, A. (1990). The Pill: How it changed our lives. Ladies Home Journal. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.

Jeffreys, S. (2011). Anticlimax : A feminist perspective on the sexual revolution. North Melbourne, Vic.: Spinifex Press. Retrieved October 28, 2013, from EBSCO online database eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=434952&site=ehost-live

Gill, R. (2007). Fertility and female sexuality: Revisiting the 'sexual revolution'. Metascience, 16 , 101-105. Retrieved April 21, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=27777978&site=ehost-live

Greig, A. (2006). Sex and the rights of man. IDS Bulletin, 37 , 84-88. Retrieved April 21, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=23861102&site=ehost-live

Gullette, M. (2008). Then and now: What have the sexual revolutions wrought?. Women's Review of Books, 25 , 22-23. Retrieved April 2, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=31204452&site=ehost-live

Lara, M. (2007, October 17). The emptiness of college dating culture. Harvard Salient, p. 5. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=27553677&site=ehost-live

McPartland, J. (1947). Sex in our changing world. New York: Rinehart & Co.

Meyer, L. (2006). Sexual revolutions. OAH Magazine of History, 20 , 5-6. Retrieved April 21, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=20317183&site=ehost-live

Petigny, A. (2004). Illegitimacy, postwar psychology, and the reperiodization of the sexual revolution. Journal of Social History, 38 , 63-79. Retrieved April 4, 2008, from SocINDEX with Full Text database. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=14535101&site=ehost-live

Petigny, A. (2005). Silent sexual revolution began in 40s and 50s. Retrieved April 4, 2008, from http://www.rgp.ufl.edu/publications/explore/v10n1/pdfs/pg07extracts.indd.pdf

Pleck, E. H. (2012). Not just roommates: Cohabitation after the sexual revolution. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Retrieved October 28, 2013, from EBSCO online database eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=457108&site=ehost-live

Rhodes, R. (1997, November, 1997). Father of the sexual revolution. New York Times. Retrieved April 12, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/02/reviews/971102.02rhodest.html

Scott Stossel. (1997, November 30). "The sexual counterrevolution." The American Prospect. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_sexual_counterrevolution

Taylor, C. (2007). Sex & Christianity. Commonweal, 134 , 12-18. Retrieved April 21, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=26879853&site=ehost-live

Turner, J. S. (2003). Background and history. In Dating and sexuality in America: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. Retrieved October 28, 2013, from EBSCO online database eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=102463&site=ehost-live

Williams, M. (ed.). (2002). The sexual revolution. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.

Suggested Reading

Kelly, G. F. (2012). America's sexual transformation: How the sexual revolution's legacy is shaping our society, our youth, and our future. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Retrieved October 28, 2013, from EBSCO online database eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=440812&site=ehost-live

Lara, M. (2007, October 17). The emptiness of college dating culture. Harvard Salient, p. 5. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=27553677&site=ehost-live

The Supreme Court's sexual counter-revolution. OAH Magazine of History, 20 , 21-25. Retrieved April 2, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=20317187&site=ehost-live