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Home > Entertainment > Sexual Revolution Month by Kinsey > Facts & Info |
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 STORY |
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The Sexual Revolution’s Effect on America
 Alfred Kinsey’s two books on sexuality, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female published in 1948 and 1953, caused such a stir in America that one can only wonder how things would be had he not opened the eyes of so many. His research was attacked by right wing Christian groups who viewed it as immoral.
Kinsey’s work helped throw open the door of sexuality that had been locked so tightly by the traditional elements of society that viewed sex as a tool for procreation and nothing more. As the 1950s wore on, small cracks in this façade began to appear. Popular culture helped finish what Kinsey had started. Magazines like Playboy, books like On The Road, movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and Rock and Roll music all served to stir up the passions of a repressed nation desperately in need of loosening up.
With the introduction of the Pill a few years later, women were afforded greater sexual freedom. Millions of American kids who had grown up during the socially repressive Fifties were now exploring their sexuality and becoming free loving hippies.
The free love continued into the next decade but the spectre of sexually transmitted diseases cast a dark shadow over the days of disco. Then, with the arrival of AIDS, things worsened. The disease that at first afflicted mostly gay men and intravenous drug users, but quickly became a problem for the rest of the world’s population as well.
In the 90s and into the new millennium, talking about sex and sex in the media has become a normal part of life. Kids are having sex at younger ages, pop music stars are pushing their own brand of sexuality to a teenage audience and STDs are an ever-growing problem.
One thing of which we can be certain is that although society has become more sexually free, the rampant moral decay predicted by those in opposition to the work of Alfred Kinsey and those who came after him hasn’t come to pass. Instead, he helped people realize that sex is a natural activity practiced in many different ways by normal people. As our collective understanding of sexual behavior continues to grow and evolve, we can look back at the work of pioneers like Alfred Kinsey and acknowledge his important contribution.
by Rob Ferraz
 Back to Sexual Revolution Month |
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INFO |
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| Catalysts in the Changing Face of Human Sexuality |
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Alfred Kinsey |
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His studies and subsequent books on human sexuality "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" and ”Sexual Behavior in the Human Female"changed the way we look at sex forever. |
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DH Lawrence |
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The author of Lady Chatterly’s Lover, a book that told the story of a wealthy woman who had an affair with one of her husband's employees is tame by today’s standards. It was banned for more than 30 years after it was published in 1928 because the powers that be considered it “obscene.” |
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Henry Miller |
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This American writer living in Paris wrote Tropic of Cancer in 1934. The book was banned in his homeland until the 1960s when the Supreme Court overturned that ruling which claimed it was obscene because of frank descriptions of sex and an abundance of colorful language. |
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Gloria Steinem |
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She helped make feminism a household word as an activist and founding editor of Ms. Magazine. |
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Hugh Hefner |
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Probably the most famous pornographer of the 20th century, Hefner launched Playboy magazine in the 1950s, incorporating nude women, Hi Fi gadgets and interesting articles all in one perky, glossy package. |
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The Beat Generation |
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Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg blazed a trail across America with books and poems like “On The Road”, “Naked Lunch” and “Howl” that opened minds loosened the morals of impressionable youths who came of age during the Fifties and Sixties. |
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Sigmund Freud |
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This famous Viennese psychiatrist founded psychoanalysis which opened new doors in the understanding of the human mind, especially where sex was concerned. |
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The Pill |
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This oral contraceptive, introduced in the early 1960s, was a major part of the women’s liberation movement during the sexual revolution as it freed millions of women to have sex with little risk of pregnancy. This new control of their own reproductive abilities had women entering the workforce in droves. |
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Jazz & Rock n' Roll |
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The two American contributions to music were denounced by the same folks who opposed the work of Alfred Kinsey. Conservative elements tried to blame Jazz and Rock and Roll for corrupting the morals of young people and leading them down a dangerous path to destruction. |
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