Sexual Liberation In The 1970's Essay

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Sexual Liberation in the 1970's Name HIS145 Date Instructor Sexual Liberation in the 1970's It could be said that the introduction of the birth control pill to the public in 1960 started the sexual revolution. Over the past 50 years, “the pill” has gone through many changes. The first pill was effective but dangerous. It was later found that the dose was 10 times too high and caused life threatening blood clots. In 1965 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Comstock laws that banned female contraceptives. Prior to the sexual revolution of the 1970’s, society held a completely polarized view of sex and everything it stood for. At one time, in the United States, it was illegal to distribute birth control and have sexual relations with anyone of the same gender. There were sodomy laws in all 50 states, which made it a crime for a man to have sexual intercourse with another man. “Everything changed in the space of roughly 15 years. The pill went on the market in 1960. Then the sexual revolution, feminism and gay liberation, in turn, revolutionized the family, the workplace and popular culture. By the end of the 1970s, Congress had outlawed gender discrimination in most areas of American life. Half of the states had repealed their laws against sodomy. The Supreme Court had ruled that statutes outlawing birth control and…show more content…
In 1972, a group of politically inactive far-right republican women aided by very powerful liberal democrat men, started a sexual counterrevolution. These women were traditional and believed in the need for the “nuclear family.” They felt the equal rights amendment took away the traditional role of women and would cause further harm to society. Surprisingly, abortion was not a big deal to these evangelicals at that time. They strongly believed in the separation of church and state and believed abortion laws were
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