The flip side of the sexual revolution

[chanel]

The sexual revolution of the swinging 60s – kick-started by the arrival of the pill – seems glamorous, exciting and seductive when depicted in hit TV shows such as Mad Men. But, argues Virginia Ironside, there was a bleaker side to such freedom

After a decade of sleeping around pretty indiscriminately, girls of the 60s eventually became fairly jaded about sex. It took me years to discover that continual sex with different partners is, with very few exceptions, joyless, uncomfortable and humiliating, and it’s only now I’m older that I’ve discovered that one of the ingredients of a good sex life is, at the very least, a grain of affection between the two partners involved.

Would I go back to the swinging 60s? Never!

Read more: The flip side of the 1960s sexual revolution: 'We paid the price for free love' | Mail Online

Fair analysis?

 

[Madeline]

It's a little hard to compare the 1960's to the 1950's for me...I was too young to really appreciate the position women were in. I wasn't sexually active myself until the 1970's. On balance, I'd say the sexual revolution was necessary and did more good than harm -- but of course there were excesses and abuses.

IMO, one of the worst abuses was swinging....which is still popular with a subset of society. This is supposed to involve mainly couples and calls for fairly indiscriminate sexual encounters. But when 4 people meet to have sex, it's a safe bet at least one is acting under duress. I don't know any couple who tried this and did not end up getting divorced.

I don't think promiscuity is good for any adult, and the older the person is, the more damage it does. A slutty 60 year old is (IMO) invariably an emotional dwarf with many, many issues.

I could have lived without the pornography and whatnot, but on balance, I'd say the sexual revolution was good for the nation. I miss the accessories of the 1950's....like hats with veils and gloves and pearls. I wouldn't be willing to accept homophobia, sexism and sexual repression just to get them, though.

 

[Granny]

I wasn't a part of that scene but I don't know that this article is totally accurate. Or maybe I just never thought about how a girl or young woman might have felt emotionally. Free sex and drugs were rampant. Promiscuity was the order of the day. In films and pictures of the time it looked like girls and women were totally into it.

 

[chanel]

I was too young as well, but I see it today with the girls that I teach. Despite the fact that "we've come a long way baby", casual, meaningless, sex with multiple partners has consequences. Emotional ones. Girls get all kinds of mixed messages. "Sex is fun". "Everyone is doing it." Yet "whore", "slut" and other labels are still used to describe this behavior.

I don't think abstinence is the answer, but how about teaching girls about love and self respect before we teach them about blow jobs?

 

[Madeline]

A bj is a sexual technique you can explain in 15 minutes, chanel. Love and respect are emotions, and they cannot really be taught. (BTW, it isn't just the girls who need this instruction; it is also the boys.)

When there are no rigidly-prescribed routes girls must follow "or else" to reach adulthood, their ability to succeed is (one hopes) let loose. They can do whatever their hearts desire....and yet without guidance, too many will choose sex rather than sports or school or whatever.

Even so, I don't relish the idea of turning back the clock and making young girls so fearful of sex, they think the world is going to end if they're not virgins.

 

[editec]

The sexual revolution of the swinging 60s – kick-started by the arrival of the pill – seems glamorous, exciting and seductive when depicted in hit TV shows such as Mad Men. But, argues Virginia Ironside, there was a bleaker side to such freedom

After a decade of sleeping around pretty indiscriminately, girls of the 60s eventually became fairly jaded about sex. It took me years to discover that continual sex with different partners is, with very few exceptions, joyless, uncomfortable and humiliating, and it’s only now I’m older that I’ve discovered that one of the ingredients of a good sex life is, at the very least, a grain of affection between the two partners involved.

Would I go back to the swinging 60s? Never!

Read more: The flip side of the 1960s sexual revolution: 'We paid the price for free love' | Mail Online

Fair analysis?

Fair when you get older, I suppose.

I enjoyed being a slut back when I wanted SEX more than I wanted my back rubbed.

I really believe that having multiple sexual partners and short to medium term relationships made me a better person.

For one thing it helped me realize that women were people just like me.

Note the mysogeny that often crops up on this board?

Almost without exception I'd be willing to bet dollars to donuts that those women hating men are ALSO men whose sexual experience is quite limited.

Why?

Well when you read the silly blather they have about what women want?

You know god damned well they haven't been with many women.

Why?

Because if you have been with a fiar number of them then you KNOW that each woman is unique.

 

[chanel]

Of course you are right in that women are unique, however on a message board its common practice to generalize. And I have no problem with GROWN women who want to sleep around. I do have a problem with little girls who are too emotionally immature to understand the consequences. And because females are "unique" many 16 year olds are still little girls. What happened to making out and petting? That was hot. And now its almost history.

 

[Ravi]

What is the alternative...out law birth control?

That this woman feels guilty that she engaged in casual sex is her problem and no one else's.

 

[Middleman]

First and foremost, I think it hurt and degraded women, which in turn ultimately hurt men and children.