They also began to question traditional sexual roles. At the core of the sexual revolution was the concept -- radical at the time -- that women, just like men, enjoyed sex and had sexual needs. Feminists asserted that single women had the same sexual desires and should have the same sexual freedoms as everyone else in society. For feminists, the sexual revolution was about female sexual empowerment. The Pill as Scapegoat As female sexuality and premarital sex moved out of the shadows, the Pill became a convenient scapegoat for the sexual revolution among social conservatives.
The Pill and the Sexual Revolution | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
The sexual revolution , also known as a time of sexual liberation , was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States from the s to the s. Several other periods in Western culture have been called the "first sexual revolution", to which the s revolution would be the second or later. The term "sexual revolution" itself has been used since at least the late s. When speaking of the sexual revolution, historians [6] make a distinction between the first and the second sexual revolution. In the first sexual revolution — , Victorian morality lost its universal appeal. However, it did not lead to the rise of a "permissive society".
The sex revolution of my youth wasn’t so great. Maybe today’s celibacy is a sign of progress
Flower power, love and peace were visibly fraying into psychedelic seediness. I was 19, a British student on a full grant, travelling by Greyhound bus. I had stopped off in California to see what the revolution was all about. On this particular afternoon, a heavily bearded male, not much interested in personal hygiene and festooned in beads, stopped me in the street.
FutureLearn uses cookies to enhance your experience of the website. All but strictly necessary cookies are currently disabled for this browser. Turn on JavaScript to exercise your cookie preferences for all non-essential cookies. You can read FutureLearn's Cookie policy here.