Biggest Change In Attitude To Sexual Behavior example essay topic

Sexual attitudes have significantly changed over the last 50 years, not so much sexual behavior but society's attitude towards it. After the World War II and in the 1950's sexual behavior was a very taboo subject and was not openly discussed. Sex was conducted behind closed doors and in the confines of marriage. Sex was mainly for reproductive purposes and pleasure was not of a great importance. When a woman got pregnant outside of marriage and the father was around, they were made to marry (shotgun wedding); however, this brought great shame on the family. Adoption and unmarried mothers homes were in existence and the church normally ran these.

Children born to these mothers were put up for adoption. Church influence and values were very strong and church leaders had a lot to say about the way family life was conducted. Alfred Kinsey conducted a major investigation in the 1940's and in 1950's in the USA of sexual behavior and faced condemnation from many religious organizations for being immoral. He persisted and eventually obtained sexual life histories of 18,000 people, which allowed getting quite accurate picture of the existing situation. Kinsey aim was to describe peoples sexual behaviors. This would allow a gap that can exist between publicly accepted attitudes and actual sexual behavior of an individual.

Sexual attitudes had undoubtedly become more permissive over the last 30 years. The 1960's brought openly declared attitudes more into line with the realities of sexual behavior. Social movements challenged the existing order of society. The New Left and Hippie Lifestyles broke with existing sexual norms, free love and pre-martial sex was adopted in their cultures and later had a strong influence on the development of society's attitude towards sex. Drugs were available and many people lost their inhibitions while under the influence, which also was a significant factor in losing social concern about sexual behavior. In 1970's Kinsey and his colleagues were to find whether 1960's brought any changes to the culture of sexuality.

During this time, Klassen has conducted the research on sexual views. It revealed that still majority of Americans were holding conservative views regarding sex. In 1967, the Abortion Act entitled women to legal abortion on medical and social grounds, although this was a very limited service on the NHS but many private clinics opened. This and the contraceptive pill played a great part in women becoming more sexually adventurous, as fear of becoming pregnant was taken away gradually. Society views on abortion were very negative at the time, and even today, there are still very mixed attitudes on this subject. Despite the society's negative attitude towards abortion, sexual attitudes were changed.

The 1970's and 1980's marked change in the public perception of homosexuals. High media profile of performers such as David Bowie and Quentin Crisp brought the idea of men wearing make up. A lot of sexual practices and preferences were brought out into the open swinging, wife swapping, and transvestism. Many clubs were started to accommodate this.

The biggest change in attitude to sexual behavior came in the 1980's and 1990's. In the early 80's just when peoples prejudices were beginning to adjust and accept the gay community along came mass media on AIDS. AIDS was first seen as a gay disease, and this made gay men stay in monogamous relationships, besides it had caused total disapproval of gay relationships. Media started to campaign on safe sex, and as more research evidence was gathered, heterosexuals were told that they were at risk. These led people being more aware of their sexual behavior or not worry and think, It will not happen to me.