Sexual Revolution

The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s significantly affected the development of masculinity in the United States. During this period, relationships between men and women shifted, and established expectations concerning sexual expression began to alter. There was an increasing liberation of attitudes toward premarital sex, homosexuality, pornography, divorce, abortion, birth control, and sex therapy; and sex itself took on a form of political expression with the increasing power of the feminist and gay rights movements. As a result, versions of masculinity began to emerge that required that men behave in ways that were less authoritative and controlling; they had to recognize the rights of women and sexual minorities and allow voices other than those of the dominant male to be heard. In one way ...