The Sexual Revolution

A photo of protest taking during the U.S. Sexual Revolution of the 1960s. It is a black and white photo of a group of men holding two signs. The one of the left of the image states, "I am a sexual being." while the one on the right is too blurry to fully read.

The event that I chose to be connected to the artist, Alice Neel, is the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s. The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s challenged traditional feelings and values concerning sex and sexual behaviors that were acceptable in society. With the revolution, sexual liberation increased acceptance of sex outside of the traditional husband/wife relationship. It also opened a space for women to embrace sexuality for them, rather than have it placed on them by men while at the same time being treated as used or dirty for engaging in sex. The normalization of the birth control pill and discovery of penicillin partially gave way for such changes. In this same era, the female body was being sexualized less and women were able to reject traditional femininity and modesty in favor of more comfortable, more traditionally masculine clothing. The Sexual Revolution, of course, didn’t just change the norms for women. While the normalization of pornography and masturbation was liberating for all, these were especially geared towards men, evidenced by the evolution of sex-ed videos in which these things are talked about in the boys’ videos but almost never in the girls’. The Sexual Revolution also directly tied in with the Gay Liberation Movement, promoting the normalization of a de-heterosexual centralization of relationships.

Associated Place(s)

Event date:

1960 to 1970

Parent Chronology: