Women Sexual Revolution
Recap After looking at the Women’s sexuality was not a huge issue and rampant until the 20th century with the “Sexual Revolution”
After looking the Women’s sexuality or sexual revolution presently going on among today’s women, it became obvious that it is a topic that really needs to be addressed. Women today actually are “free” sexually, or so it seem, throwing caution away and willing to explore their sexual appetites. There is really nothing wrong with wanting to explore if it were for the purposes of discovery. But the issue is, more often than not, exploration leads to discovery and then there is increasing desire to discover more till it all spirals out of control.
Several factors have been claimed to be responsible for the increased sexual awareness among women. For the purposes of this article, let us focus on the Pill or contraceptives.
In the late 60’s, a feminist movement started rabble rousing, challenging the government that women should not be excluded from politics and the workplace. This feminist movement also placed clauses on sexual roles of women. At the center of the sexual revolution, started by the movement was that women also enjoy sex just like men do and that they have sexual needs too. The movement also argued that women who are single should be free to express their sexual desires without prejudice in the society. This whole movement was aimed at empowering women sexually. However, the social conservatives then see this as a way of inviting sexual promiscuity in the society and eventually, the family. This way of sexual revolution, therefore started in the 60s between the social conservatives and the feminists. Amidst these arguments, the Pill was brought into focus.
The social conservatives argued that the Pill is evil because it allows women to have sexual affairs without the worry of pregnancy. Many have even argued that the sexual revolution was possible because of the pill because it simply empowered women to separate sex from procreation, something that has not been possible before. In the past, women are forced to kill or suppress their sexual desires at the thought of getting pregnant except when they are really ready for that. The thought of getting pregnant held single women back from having sexual affairs before marriage. Now since the Pill can control fertility and pregnancy occurrence, single and married women now could have sex anytime, anyhow, any place and with anyone without worrying about pregnancy.
The argument of the Feminist Movement was that there is double standard in place. Why should single men be free to have sex when young women are not allowed to do same? The idea of young women behaving like men disturbed too many people. The Pill was tagged and this was not without response from the makers of the Pill.
In reply to the conservatives who have tagged the Pill as the evil that will cause promiscuity to explode, John Rock and Gregory Pincus said that the technology of the Pill is not the determinant of the behavior. Although the veneer of the Chaste Society and the Social conservatives does not agree, there appears to be evidence to back up their views clinically. Studies carried out to prove this showed that unmarried women were already having sex prior to the advent of the pill. They were using other methods to prevent pregnancy although the other methods were less effective.
Today, the way between the conservatives and the Feminist movement seemed to have ended because there seems to be no societal emphasis on chastity or virginity and marriage any longer. What we have now are celebrations of single women displaying their sexuality as they wish. There have been many books written and many movies shot that promote female sexuality and the sexual revolution among women, gently pushing aside every contrary view.
After a careful look, we can all see that this is a big issue. You can sit at the bus station and watch every woman and one out of every 5 is sexually free. Marriage doesn’t even seem to hold some women down as they are free to use pills, go and have sexual affairs with other men outside the confines of marriage. Now this has standard and lasting adverse effects on the family and the future generation. This is why attention has been given to the Sexual revolution among the 20th century women lately.
So the pill was the culprit, as it is still believed by most social conservatives but is it? Yes the pill gave women power to have sex without worrying about pregnancy but will it still be responsible for the moral breakdown in the society? What about the condom?
Sexual revolution and women sexuality today still remains an issue that no one really knows which direction it’s going. There seems to be more forces in support than against and this further erodes the moral levels of our society.
