# Who Won the Sexual Revolution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 2, 2011, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593 "2011-11-02T04:58:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/21 "2011-11-02T15:55:39Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I disagree, in fact I think it’s the opposite. Although we are approaching the time when gay rights will have overwhelming support, the constitutional amendments are passing in areas where the majority are homophobic. The goal of passing a constitutional amendment is to allow the majority to override the constitutional protections of the minority. The anti-gay crowd is much more worried about the judiciary than they are about a law passed by a legislature. Not to speak for leachim, but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what s/he meant. Passing legislation is a recognition by the bigots that while may be in the majority for the moment, that moment is ending quickly and they need to guard against that sea change. If they felt secure in the continuing bigotry of the population, there’d be no need for legislation. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/22 "2011-11-02T17:45:10Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > It also put porn mags on the shelves of supermarkets and naked chicks strutting their silicone tits on adds all over town and in general a tremendous increase in public sexualisation of the female body. No doubt helping a lot of girls develop various mental disorders. Don’t know if it was a fair trade for the rest, but men scored big. Men were the victors of the sexual revolution. Liberté, égalité, fraternité! You think women weren’t being objectified before the sexual revolution? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/23 "2011-11-02T17:58:11Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Men. > > I’d also say children having sex at younger ages is an indirect result of the sexual revolution. They definitely lost. Or won. Depending on your view I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/24 "2011-11-02T18:01:30Z")
Ugh. Tell it to the teenage moms or the 13 year old with herpes. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/25 "2011-11-02T18:03:20Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Not to speak for leachim, but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what s/he meant. Passing legislation is a recognition by the bigots that while may be in the majority for the moment, that moment is ending quickly and they need to guard against that sea change. If they felt secure in the continuing bigotry of the population, there’d be no need for legislation. This. If you’re not expecting mongols any day now, you’re not going to bother building a great wall. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/26 "2011-11-02T18:04:02Z")
To me, the sexual revolution was about loosening up the rules (and laws) surrounding sex. For example, co-habitation was not only considered immoral, but it was also illegal in many states. It just wasn’t done. These days, it’s just no big deal. If a girl got pregnant in HS, she either had an abortion (legal or illegal) or “went to live with her aunt” until the baby was born and put up for adoption. Only really “low class” girls would openly have the baby. There was also a lot of overlap with the Women’s Lib movement, since sex and gender roles are intertwined. The counterculture definitely won, and it didn’t take very long, either. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/27 "2011-11-02T18:07:32Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Ugh. Tell it to the teenage moms or the 13 year old with herpes. 😕 Tell it to the pregnant girl in my junior high (in a good neighborhood) in 1965. Hell, tell it to Romeo and Juliet. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/28 "2011-11-02T18:34:28Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Ugh. Tell it to the teenage moms or the 13 year old with herpes. 😕 Actually, both of those girls win too. Teenage girls have always gotten pregnant and gotten herpes. Now, teenage girls have a wealth of ways of dealing with those problems that they certainly _didn’t_ have before the sexual revolution. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/29 "2011-11-02T18:39:38Z")
Teenage moms with herpes! Cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria! ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/30 "2011-11-02T18:41:45Z")
Missed the edit window… People have always fucked. People aren’t really fucking a whole lot more than they ever did. But now it’s okay to fuck, which is awesome because it’s much harder to exploit people who are socially allowed to fuck and to talk about fucking. Young women are the biggest winners of the sexual revolution in that sense. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/31 "2011-11-02T19:08:56Z")
Men won. Instead of having to marry a girl if he got her pregnant, he can now piously claim to support women’s rights to abort the baby so he don’t have to pay child support for 18 years. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/32 "2011-11-02T19:20:12Z")
Unless of course she chooses _not_ to abort the baby, in which case he’s legally on the hook even though the choice was all hers. Plus, she doesn’t have to marry him just because he knocked her up. Point: women ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/33 "2011-11-02T19:50:55Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Tell it to the pregnant girl in my junior high (in a good neighborhood) in 1965. > > Hell, tell it to Romeo and Juliet. Let’s bear in mind that the reason teenage sex happens is because it’s **supposed** to. We’re designed to get on with the breeding soon as we’re able. No educational or cultural changes can change that. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/34 "2011-11-02T19:58:27Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Men won. > > Instead of having to marry a girl if he got her pregnant, he can now piously claim to support women’s rights to abort the baby so he don’t have to pay child support for 18 years. Actually, the more I think about this… Neither men nor women being forced into unwanted marriages by unplanned pregnancies? Point: everyone ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/35 "2011-11-02T20:38:46Z")
Forget the sexual revolution of mid-20th century America. Social liberals in the West in general have been winning for a couple hundred years now. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/36 "2011-11-02T22:28:25Z")
It’s important to remember that around the beginning of the 20th century, debates about sexual morality often took the form of: _“Sex is a necessary evil, to be used for procreation”_ vs. _“Sex (and the display and depiction of the human body) should be enjoyed”_ If you consider the ‘sexual revolution’ of the 60’s to be the continuation of a much longer struggle between conservative, religious people and secular liberals, it’s pretty much a slam dunk: the liberals won, overwhelmingly. Heck, one of the most enduring conservative strawmen (straw-women?) is the man-hating ‘feminazi’ who’s never gotten laid and considers compliments about appearance harrassment. When Rush invokes this character, which side of the sexual revolution is he fighting on? I’m sure Rush and his fans don’t enjoy being associated with anything liberal, but if their decent, God-fearing great-grandparents came back in a time machine and caught them ogling Sarah Palin jogging in those cute little shorts, the younguns would get quite the history lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/37 "2011-11-02T22:47:55Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Actually, both of those girls win too. Teenage girls have always gotten pregnant and gotten herpes. Now, teenage girls have a wealth of ways of dealing with those problems that they certainly _didn’t_ have before the sexual revolution. Girls are getting more knocked up and more STDs than before the sexual revolution. Yeah, they may have access to abortion clinics and treatments (especially as they get older - a 18 year old with a baby is still counted in the teen pregnancy rates) but get real. You think that girls giving blowjobs at 12 is a good idea?! Before the sexual revolution, she was more likely to get married. Now she’s likely to be a high school dropout on welfare with a few more coming…minority girls have _twice the rate_ of teenage (birth) than white girls. (I don’t say “pregnancy” because it does not count for abortions.) ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/38 "2011-11-02T22:59:12Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Actually, the more I think about this… > > Neither men nor women being forced into unwanted marriages by unplanned pregnancies? > > Point: everyone How about teenage girls that have babies by boys that are much older or are victims of [relationship abuse](http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/10/1/6.abstract)? Young girls: lost. Not all aspects of progressive movements have wonderful outcomes. Was the purpose of the sexual revolution to get 13 year olds sexually active, anyway? Doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/39 "2011-11-02T23:10:19Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > How about teenage girls that have babies by boys that are much older or are victims of [relationship abuse](http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/10/1/6.abstract)? > > Young girls: lost. I don’t understand the point. In the past young girls being married off to older men was normal and expected; now it’s criminalized. And anyone who complained about hitting your woman should mind his own business and wasn’t a man’s man anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593/40 "2011-11-02T23:11:59Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > How about teenage girls that have babies by boys that are much older or are victims of [relationship abuse](http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/10/1/6.abstract)? > > Young girls: lost. > > Not all aspects of progressive movements have wonderful outcomes. Was the purpose of the sexual revolution to get 13 year olds sexually active, anyway? Doubt it. Prior to the sexual revolution, the girls would have been considered loose women deserving of punishment for having pre-marital sex. The boys or men involved would have been “sowing their wild oats.” In the old days, statutory rape laws (when they were set higher than twelve) frequently included language that made an exception if the girl was considered “wanton or promiscious”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-won-the-sexual-revolution/601593.md?page=3)