What did the Sexual Revolution do to our society?

Question

How has our values changed? What are the greatest results of the sexual revolution? the worst? Has the sexual revolution created better or worse men? What do women want the legacy of the sexual revolution to be?

There are certainly a lot of questions and implications about the sexual revolution. Personally, I have changed some of my personal beliefs about sex after understanding more about the movement. What do you all think? What's your personal perspective?

I would love to get points of view from both genders...

Answer 1

There were a number of good and bad outcomes from the sexual revolution.
On one hand, moral values, family values, and self-discipline declined, while the number of teenage pregnancies, divorce rates, and STDs increased.
On the other hand, most people no longer considered sex nasty, women were free to admit they liked sex rather than claim it was just a duty they performed, the word sex no longer had to be whispered, and more people were open to sexual experimentation, with both their partner and with others.
The name sexual revolution is somewhat misleading. In a revolution, there is a revolt, but there is also an outcome. The sexual revolution was more like opening a door, and once it was open, more and more people began passing through it. There has been no definitive outcome, because in many ways, the sexual revolution is still going on, and many people are still divided over a number of the issues.
Some people have taken up arms against it (such as the moral majority movement), while others have gained support (such as nudists, or ‘naturalists’ as is the current politically correct term).
Another example of the ongoing battle is the sex shops and adult theatres. More of them have been opened and they are getting more business than ever, increasing the tax revenue, but many people don’t want them in their neighborhood, so many city and county governments have been closing them down and prohibiting the opening of new ones.
Adult products, such as sex toys and pornography, are now more readily available, and the variety of products and material has increased, but so has the volume of child pornography and government legislation trying to restrict adult content.
The popularity of the Internet is creating a resurgence in the conflicting issues, and in many ways is creating a new revolution, a new demand for adult material, and new government regulation.
Since I run a family oriented website, and an adult’s only website, and sell adult products such as sex toys, I get some insight as far as what people on the Internet are looking for. Although we get about 10 times the hits on our family site, we make a lot more sales on our adult site. I will say the hit ratio is biased because we include various warnings in our metatags that get spidered, so many search engines rank other sites higher than ours, and our site is usually blocked if any types of parental controls are in place, but the conversion ratio speaks for itself.
What is interesting is the fact more people buy sex toys than view the adult galleries or use the adult dating services we have, possibly indicating an increase in sexual activity over simply viewing pornography.
Although this post is extremely long, I’ve only scratched the surface here, because I could write a book to cover all of the points you have asked about in any depth.

Answer 2

I believe the Sexual Revolution of the 1960's made discussing sexual matters publicly more permissible. Also, just from observation, it has made pre-marital and extra-marital sex more socially acceptable but not without consequences (a rise in teenage pregnancies, a rise in STD's including HIV/AIDS), more broken hearts, and a very casual attitude towards sex without mature emotional involvement or committment.

Regarding women, as a woman I believed that feminism was opposed to the objectifying of the female body, oppsed to the "women are just a sex mate for men and nothing more" but somewhere along the way, our present society in 2006 has been objectifying females more than ever, girls are becoming more dependent on males more than ever, they're having boyfriends at the ages of 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, getting pregnant at the ages of 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, when they should be concentrating on individual achievement instead of making babies.

Answer 3

It did damage beyond imagination. Look at our culture now. We live in a society with nearly no morals. In the 50's moms were home taking care of the kids. We weren't up to our eyeballs in debt. Kids lived with an original mom and dad. Divorce was not the first option. Sex was usually after marriage. Pregnant was not a word used in public. Gay people were called queer, simply because it was odd. People were respectful of each other. Families actually ate dinner together every night and the food was cooked rather than nuked. Most people went to church. And if a girl got pregnant she was silently sent away because it was a shame. People actually got married and then had kids. All the kids in the family had the same dad. The sexual revolution lowered the bar for everything, it transformed the society to a level with the animals. People have become selfish, arrogant, foolish and unashamed.

Answer 4

You know? Instead of whining how horrible the outcome of the sexual revolution, you have to remember that you're all responsible for only yourselves.

There are many of us with "high moral standards", and just because some of us are "feminists" fighting for rights of women, doesn't mean we all sleep around. Perhaps some do, perhaps lots of us still don't.

What the sexual revolution did was, "give women right to make her own choices". In the far past, it was society, men, the whole system was set up to decide what was right for women. She had no right to decide what she could or possibly do.

She wasn't allowed to have a choice of getting any kind of birth prevention methods. In fact it was against the law in many places. Birth rates were highest back then for single girls.

A woman's only recourse was to get an education as far as she can get a husband, then become a housewife. Although many women did work, there were many who still couldn't.

Today, more of us can get our own degrees, education, professions, careers, before we choose to settle down in a marriage.

Yes, there are many girls who feel that it's okay to bed as many guys as possible, because it's their choice. I agree, they should at least learn "safe sex" in those circumstances.

What the sexual revolution forgot to teach was "self-respect". However, most of those who come from families that permit promisciuity, most often themselves, lack any morals, hence their own children lack any sense of morality.

You have to remember, that men who sleep around also lack any moral standards, so you can't blame all your own woes, such as STDs, teen pregnancy, on loose women/girls. It takes two to tango.

Answer 5

Willys cynical thought for the fugging day;

To the feminists; how do you expect to win the battle of the sexes when 90+% of your team is sleeping with the enemy?

Answer 6

It got us where we are today, compare the differences (allowing ratio of population increase) of prisoners, crime, STDs, etc. before and after said "revolution".

Answer 7

Women can run around having sex like guys do and not feel shameful, how great. Paris Hilton has become the new American Girl.

Answer 8

Interested in this