Human Sexuality from 1940s - 1980s?

Question

I have an assignment for my Human Sexuality class that I need to ask questions to people in different decades on Human Sexuality. It would be great if some could help me out and answer some of the following questions. Please note that this is aimed towards personal experince (preferable during your teenage years). Also please let me know what decade your are refering to. Thanks

1) Where there any stereotypes that you remember?

2) Do you think the view of parents letting their kids have
girlfriend/boyfriend has changed?

3) Were contraception pills/methods availble over the counter?
like how we have clinics for underage female today?

4) Who taught you all the information you know today? School/Friend/Book?

5) The view of homosexuals, were they accepted?

Answer 1

I grew up in the great pussy drought of the 60's. Birth control pills were not invented until the late sixties and abortion was illegal. Thus, most smart girls were more careful than today's generation. Most homosexual's were hiding deep in their closets and there was not a lot of discussion about the issue (or non-issue). As far as stereotypes, girls that "got around" too much were labeled as sluts.

Answer 2

In the forties and fifties, homosexuality was utterly unaccepted. Nobody was out of the closet.

Things started to change in the late sixties, with the Stonewall riot, then gradually become acceptable in the seventies and eighties. It wasn't until the ninties when people started really coming out more that the prejudice started to noticably wan. My guess is that the more people realized that people they knew were gay and not three-headed monsters, the more they accepted them as different, but not bad.

I think most parents have come to accept that their children will start to become sexually active in their mid to late teens. In the forties (before my time) and fifties, it was still expected that a girl had to get married before having sex. In practice it didn't always happen, but because of the fear of unwanted pregnancy, condoms were used probably more than now - even considering AIDs. That all started to change with the sexual revolution of the late sixties and seventies - fueled by the pill.

I expect my daughters were sexually active in their mid to late teens. Also, because my youngest daughter never had a boyfriend, my wife and I were not surprised when she told us she was a Lesbian. Not something that's a problem in our household.

One odd change is that in the 40's and 50's, girls would date multiple guys (during the same time period), but wouldn't go steady until they had somebody very special. It seems that as time has gone by, a girl will usually only date one guy for a while, then change. Almost as if you are either going steady or are between boyfriends - no middle ground of dating several people. Perhaps this is because sex is more likely than in the early days, so fidelity prevents dating multiple people simultaneously.

Contraception (the pill) still isn't available over the counter. It still requires a prescription.

Answer 3

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