The sexual revolution, also called sexual liberation, was a social movement that changed how people thought about sex and relationships in the Western world from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. This movement led to greater acceptance of sexual activity outside of traditional heterosexual, monogamous relationships, such as marriage. The legalization of "the pill" and other birth control methods, along with changes in attitudes toward public nudity, pornography, premarital sex, homosexuality, masturbation, different types of sexual relationships, and abortion, followed these changes.
Scholars sometimes use the term "first sexual revolution" to describe earlier times when Western sexual norms changed, such as during the Christianization of Roman society, the decline of strict Victorian rules, and the cultural changes of the 1920s. The term "sexual revolution" most often refers to the mid-20th century, when new birth control methods, medical advances, and social movements caused major shifts in how people viewed and practiced sex. Ideas from Freud’s theory about hidden desires and personal development, Mead’s research on teenage sexuality in Samoa, Unwin’s studies of different cultures, and the work of Kinsey and later Masters and Johnson all challenged old beliefs about human sexuality.
The availability of birth control beginning in the early 1900s gave people more control over their reproductive choices. This influenced legal decisions, such as Griswold v. Connecticut, and later shaped important rulings about personal privacy, abortion, and LGBTQ+ rights. "Free love" was a related movement that supported personal freedom in relationships by keeping the government out of matters like marriage and birth control. However, this movement declined in the 1980s due to the AIDS crisis.
By the 1970s, sexual activity before marriage or outside of marriage had become more accepted in the United States. This was due to the rise of birth control, later marriages, less shame around divorce, and the growing acceptance of casual or non-monogamous relationships.
Origins
Other times in Western history have been called the "first sexual revolution," with the 1960s movement referred to as the "second sexual revolution." The term "sexual revolution" was first used in the late 1920s. It appeared in a book titled Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do by James Thurber and E. B. White, which included a chapter titled "The Sexual Revolution: Being a Rather Complete Survey of the Entire Sexual Scene." Konstantin Dushenko noted that the term was also used in Soviet Russia as early as 1925.
Historians often separate the "first sexual revolution" (1870–1910) from the "second." During the first period, Victorian morality lost its widespread influence, but society did not become more permissive. Important examples from this time include changes in how sexuality was regulated.
Classics professor Kyle Harper uses the phrase "first sexual revolution" to describe how Ancient Roman sexual norms were replaced by Christian values as Christianity spread across the Roman Empire. In Ancient Rome, prostitution, bisexuality, and pederasty were accepted, and male promiscuity was seen as normal as long as masculinity was maintained. Female chastity was required for respectable women to protect family bloodlines. These ideas were later replaced by Christian rules that banned homosexual acts and sex outside marriage, including with slaves and prostitutes.
History professor Faramerz Dabhoiwala points to the Age of Enlightenment (around the 18th century) as a major shift in the United Kingdom. During this time, liberal ideas spread, and more people moved to cities, making it harder to enforce strict rules about sexuality. Sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church weakened religious authority, and urban police forces helped separate crime from personal behavior. Heterosexual sex outside marriage, such as prostitution and premarital sex, became more accepted, though still criticized by some. Masturbation, homosexuality, and rape were still widely disapproved of. Women were no longer seen as equally lustful as men but were instead viewed as passive partners whose purity was important for their reputation.
History professor Kevin F. White refers to the Roaring Twenties as the "first sexual revolution." World War I and alcohol prohibition in the United States weakened Victorian Era attitudes. At the same time, the women’s suffrage movement gained voting rights, and the flapper subculture included behaviors like premarital sex and "petting parties."
Indicators of non-traditional sexual behavior, such as rising gonorrhea cases, births outside of marriage, and teenage pregnancies, increased sharply in the mid-to-late 1950s. This led to major changes in attitudes about women’s sexuality, homosexuality, premarital sex, and freedom to express sexual desires.
Psychologists like Wilhelm Reich and Alfred Kinsey, along with scientists, influenced these changes. Literature, films, and social movements such as the counterculture, women’s rights movement, and gay rights movement also shaped attitudes. The counterculture encouraged exploring the body and mind, promoting the idea that sexual expression should be celebrated as a normal part of life, separate from religion, family, and traditional moral codes.
The development of the birth control pill in 1960 gave women easier and more reliable contraception. Improved medical care for childbirth also reduced maternal deaths, increasing women’s life expectancy. Another factor was the "Baby Boom Generation," born in the 1940s and 1950s, who grew up in prosperous, safe conditions with better access to education and entertainment. Their influence helped shift society toward more permissive attitudes.
The discovery of penicillin reduced deaths from syphilis, leading to more non-traditional sexual activity in the mid-to-late 1950s.
There was a rise in sexual activity among unmarried adults. Divorce rates increased, and marriage rates decreased during this time. The number of unmarried Americans aged 20 to 24 more than doubled, from 4.3 million in 1960 to 9.7 million in 1976. Many people experimented with new relationship models, such as open marriage, mate swapping, swinging, and communal sex.
Academic influences
Sigmund Freud, a psychologist from Vienna, believed that human behavior was influenced by hidden, unconscious desires, especially those related to sexual energy, which he called "libido." He studied how these hidden desires were kept hidden and how they showed up in other ways through culture. He called this method of study and treatment "psychoanalysis."
Although some people in Vienna were not at first interested in or disagreed with Freud's ideas, his theories soon became important to many people, including scientists, artists, and writers in Europe and the United States starting in the 1920s. His belief that a strong sexual drive could not be fully controlled by laws, education, or social rules challenged the strict views of Victorian society. His theory about how children develop sexually suggested that young people experience a period of desire toward a parent of the opposite sex, an idea that shocked people in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
According to Freud, the first stage of a child's sexual development, called the "oral stage," involved the mother's breast being the main source of future sexual feelings. Many of Freud's ideas are still debated by experts, but they helped shape important discussions in the study of human behavior.
Two thinkers who supported Freud, Otto Gross and Wilhelm Reich, developed ideas about how sexual behavior relates to society between the 1910s and 1930s. They believed that sexual behavior, shaped by human evolution, influenced how people interacted in society. They argued that freeing sexual behavior could lead to changes in society.
In 1928, anthropologist Margaret Mead published a book called Coming of Age in Samoa, which discussed how teenagers in Samoa experienced sexual freedom. Mead's work suggested that adolescence in Samoa was not a time of great stress, as some theories claimed, but instead allowed young people to move smoothly from childhood to adulthood. Mead's findings were later questioned by another anthropologist, Derek Freeman, who studied Samoan society and challenged her claims about sexual freedom.
In 1934, English anthropologist J. D. Unwin wrote a book called Sex and Culture, which explored the relationship between a society's level of cultural achievement and its level of sexual restraint. He argued that as societies become more developed, they become more sexually open, which he believed led to less unity and energy in society. Unwin also claimed that true monogamy required equal rights for men and women.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Alfred C. Kinsey conducted studies on sexual behavior in the United States. He published two books, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), based on interviews with thousands of Americans. These interviews, which lasted hours, were supported by written records and, in some cases, films of people engaging in sexual activities. Kinsey found that many sexual behaviors once considered unusual were actually common. For example, he reported that 4% of men were primarily homosexual. He believed this information should be used to change strict laws about sexuality, such as those that criminalized private consensual sex between men.
Kinsey's books became widely read and helped prepare the way for later researchers, such as William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, who studied sexual practices in the 1960s and 1970s. Their books, Human Sexual Response (1966) and Human Sexual Inadequacy (1970), became important works in the study of human sexuality.
Popular culture
In the United States between 1959 and 1966, bans on three books with explicit erotic content were challenged in court and overturned. Similar events happened in the United Kingdom, starting with the 1959 Obscene Publications Act and reaching a major point with the Lady Chatterley's Lover court case.
Before these years, rules about what could be published were not clear or consistent. For example, the United States Customs Service banned James Joyce’s Ulysses by refusing to let it enter the country. The Roman Catholic Church’s list of banned books, called the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, had strong influence over Catholics. Books on this list were avoided by many people. In Boston, a group called the Watch and Ward Society, inspired by Anthony Comstock, helped make "banned in Boston" a well-known phrase.
In 1959, Grove Press published an unedited version of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence. The U.S. Post Office took the books from the mail. Lawyer Charles Rembar sued the New York City Postmaster and won in court.
Henry Miller’s 1934 book, Tropic of Cancer, had explicit sexual content and was not allowed to be published in the United States. A version was printed in Paris and copies were brought into the U.S. illegally. In 1961, Grove Press released a copy of the book, and many booksellers were sued for selling it. The U.S. Supreme Court decided the case in 1964, ruling in favor of Grove Press.
In 1963, Putnam published John Cleland’s 1750 book, Fanny Hill. Charles Rembar took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. In Memoirs v. Massachusetts, the court said that sex is a powerful force in human life and that discussing it in books is protected by the First Amendment.
By allowing Fanny Hill to be published, the U.S. Supreme Court made it very hard to ban books. Rembar called the 1966 decision "the end of obscenity." Only books that strongly appeal to sexual desire could be banned. The court said that obscenity is "utterly without redeeming social importance," meaning that books with any value or literary quality could not be considered obscene, even if they had some content that might upset some readers.
Swedish filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman and Vilgot Sjöman made films with sexual themes that challenged traditional standards. The 1951 film Hon dansade en sommar showed explicit nudity, including people bathing in a lake. This film, along with Bergman’s Sommaren med Monika (1951) and Tystnaden (1963), caused controversy, especially in the United States. Vilgot Sjöman’s film I Am Curious (Yellow) was popular in the U.S. Another of his films, 491, focused on homosexuality. Kärlekens språk was a documentary about sex and sexual techniques that included the first real act of sex in a mainstream film.
These films led to the idea of "Swedish sin," which meant freedom with nudity and sexuality. This image of "hot love and cold people" showed how sexual openness was part of modernization, helping people feel free to express natural desires. These films, made by famous directors, helped people stop expecting films to avoid sexual topics. Over time, they changed public attitudes toward sex, especially in Sweden and other northern European countries, where people today are more sexually open.
The monokini, also called a "topless bikini" or "unikini," was designed by Rudi Gernreich in 1964. It had only a small bottom and two thin straps. It was the first swimsuit for women that did not cover the chest. Gernreich’s design, which had a bottom that went from the stomach to the upper thigh and was held up by thin laces, was seen as new and controversial. Some say his design started or represented the 1960s sexual revolution.
The court decisions that allowed Fanny Hill to be published had another important effect: nonfiction books about sex and sexuality became more common. These books were factual and educational, sold in regular bookstores and mail-order clubs, and their authors appeared on late-night TV. Earlier books, like What Every Girl Should Know (1920) by Margaret Sanger and A Marriage Manual (1939) by Hannah and Abraham Stone, had already started open discussions about sex. By the 1950s, it was rare for women to go into marriage without knowing what to expect.
Talking openly about sex as a source of pleasure and explaining sexual practices and techniques was a major change. Some people had heard about these practices, but many adults did not know if they were real or just in pornographic books. The Kinsey report showed that these practices were common. Other books, like a 1980 book by Irene Kassorla called Nice Girls Do – And Now You Can Too, encouraged people to learn about them.
In 1962, Helen Gurley Brown wrote Sex and the Single Girl: The Unmarried Woman's Guide to Men, Careers, the Apartment, Diet, Fashion, Money and Men.
In 1969, a woman who used the name "J." published The Way to Become the Sensuous Woman, which included information about exercises to improve tongue skills and how to have anal sex.
That same year, David Reuben’s book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) was published. Even though Reuben had medical credentials, the book had a friendly tone.
In 1970, the Boston Women’s Health Collective published Women and Their Bodies, later reissued as Our Bodies, Ourselves. Though not a book about sex, it included honest descriptions of sexuality and had illustrations that might have caused legal issues years earlier.
In 1972, Alex Comfort’s The Joy of Sex: A Gourmet Guide to Love Making was published. Later editions had less excitement because of the AIDS crisis.
In 1975, Will McBride’s book Zeig Mal! (Show Me!), written with psychologist Helga Fleichhauer-Hardt for children and parents, was sold in bookstores in the United States and Europe. Some parents liked its honest description of pre-adolescent sexual discovery, but others were upset and the book was removed from shelves in the U.S. and other countries. A later version, Zeig Mal Mehr! (
Modern revolutions
During the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution and advances in science, technology, medicine, and healthcare led to the creation of more effective birth control methods. Improvements in rubber production allowed for the mass production of condoms, which could be used by millions of people to prevent pregnancy at low cost. Progress in chemistry, medicine, biology, and the study of the human body helped scientists develop the first oral contraceptives, commonly called "the pill."
These changes happened at the same time as rising literacy rates worldwide and a decrease in religious practices. People began to move away from old beliefs, such as the Biblical idea of "be fruitful and multiply," as they embraced new values from modern cultures.
Philosophers like Herbert Marcuse and Wilhelm Reich, who built on the ideas of Karl Marx, also influenced the shift toward greater sexual freedom.
In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, "no-fault" divorce laws made it easier for people to end marriages without blaming each other.
The women's movement changed how society viewed sexuality, focusing on women's right to enjoy sex and have their desires respected. In 1970, Anne Koedt wrote The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm, explaining how women's bodies work and showing that clitoral orgasms are real, challenging older ideas that claimed women were less important. The movement also supported lesbian feminism, freedom from heterosexual relationships, and freedom from forced reproduction. In 1963, Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, highlighting the frustrations women faced due to unequal roles in society.
The Gay Rights Movement began after the Stonewall riots in 1969, which inspired widespread activism. Gay activists gave "coming out" a political purpose, moving it from a personal matter to a public act. In the 1950s, being homosexual was dangerous, and many people hid their sexuality. However, Alfred Kinsey's research in the 1940s and 1950s found that 39% of unmarried men had experienced same-sex relationships by adulthood.
Feminism and sexual liberation
Since the start of the sexual liberation movement in the Western world, which happened at the same time as second-wave feminism and the women's liberation movement in the early 1960s, new religious groups and spiritual ideas, such as Modern Paganism and the New Age movement, began to grow and spread worldwide. These groups often overlapped with the sexual liberation movement and the counterculture of the 1960s. They showed traits like supporting alternative lifestyles, wearing unusual clothing, rejecting Abrahamic religions and their traditional rules, using cannabis and other recreational drugs, having a relaxed attitude, showing sarcasm or choosing to live simply, and having a more open approach to sexual behavior. Feminist leaders helped the sexual liberation movement by working together to challenge old ideas about female, male, and queer sexuality. Key goals from the feminist perspective included reducing unfair advantages for men, stopping the objectification of women, and supporting women's right to choose their sexual partners without outside pressure or judgment. In the early stages of feminism, women's liberation was often seen as the same as sexual liberation rather than connected to it. Many feminist thinkers believed that focusing on sexuality was important for achieving women's freedom, so they encouraged women to take the initiative in romantic relationships, enjoy sex, and explore new ways of expressing their sexuality. Feminist movements focused on both physical and mental sexual freedom for women. The idea that women should seek sexual pleasure became a central belief, which helped build the foundation for women's independence. Although whether sexual freedom should be a feminist issue is still debated, feminist movements clearly define themselves as efforts to achieve equality between men and women in society, politics, and the economy. Feminist movements also work to stop sexism, which is a complex issue, making it hard to separate the fight against sexism from the fight against sexual oppression. The feminist movement has helped create a society where LGBTQ+ individuals and women can be more open about their sexuality, leading to a kind of spiritual freedom related to sex. Instead of hiding their desires, women and LGBTQ+ people now have more freedom to express their sexual feelings. Because of this, the feminist movement to end sexual oppression has and continues to support the sexual liberation movement.
Contraception
As birth control became more available, men and women had more choices about whether to have children. In 1916, thin, disposable latex condoms for men were invented, leading to more affordable and widely available condoms by the 1930s. The end of the Comstock laws in 1936 allowed for the promotion of effective contraceptives like the diaphragm and cervical cap. In the 1960s, the introduction of the IUD and oral contraceptives for women reduced reliance on barrier methods. However, the Catholic Church, under Pope Paul VI in 1968, released Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life), which banned artificial contraception. Instead, the Church supported the rhythm method, which encouraged people to use natural fertility cycles to avoid pregnancy. This religious opposition led some people to distance themselves from religion and support secular movements.
In 1965, the Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut ruled that banning contraception was unconstitutional because it violated people’s right to privacy in marriage. During the 1960s and 1970s, the birth control movement pushed for legalizing abortion and government education about contraception. The Griswold case set a legal example for future decisions, including allowing unmarried couples to use contraception (Eisenstadt v. Baird, 1972), granting women the right to abortion (Roe v. Wade, 1973), and allowing minors access to contraception (Carey v. Population Services International, 1977). The Griswold case also influenced later rulings on the rights to homosexual relationships (Lawrence v. Texas, 2003) and same-sex marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015).
Free love
Free love is a social movement that supports all types of love. The movement's main goal was to take away the government's control over sexual issues, such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It believed these matters should be decided by the people involved, not by others.
The movement continued in various ways during the 1970s and into the early 1980s. However, stronger actions linked to free love faced more opposition in the mid-1980s, when people first learned about AIDS, a serious disease spread through sexual contact.
Non-marital sex
Premarital sex, once seen as wrong or shameful, became more widely accepted over time. The availability of birth control and the legal permission to have abortions in some areas helped lower the risk of unwanted pregnancies from premarital sex. By the mid-1970s, most newly married American couples had had sex before getting married.
A key factor in this change was the growing number of relationships between unmarried adults. These relationships often led to sexual activity before marriage, and people married at older ages. On average, Americans gained sexual experience before forming monogamous relationships (relationships with only one partner). The rise in divorce rates and the reduced embarrassment about divorce during this time also encouraged more sexual experimentation. By 1971, over 75% of Americans believed premarital sex was acceptable, a three times increase from the 1950s. The number of unmarried Americans aged twenty to twenty-four more than doubled between 1960 and 1976. Fewer Americans wanted to marry and settle down, and fewer were interested in monogamous relationships. In 1971, 35% of Americans thought marriage was outdated.
The idea that marriage was outdated came from the rise of casual sex among Americans. The development of the birth control pill and the legal permission to have abortions in 1973 reduced the risk of unwanted pregnancies outside of marriage. At this time, all known sexually transmitted diseases could be treated easily.
Swinger clubs, where people had casual sex with multiple partners, began appearing in various places, from private homes to large venues similar to discos. In 1977, Larry Levenson opened Plato’s Retreat in New York City, but the club closed in 1985 after being closely monitored by public health officials.
Legacy
Fraenkel (1992) believes that the "sexual revolution," which the West supposedly experienced in the late 1960s, is a wrong name or misunderstanding. He argues that people do not truly enjoy freedom in sexual matters, as sexual behavior is always influenced by cultural norms. This idea is connected to the concept of "repressive desublimation," first introduced by Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse. According to this concept, the "sexual revolution" might actually be a conservative force disguised as a movement for freedom. This force uses sexual energy to distract people from addressing real social issues, making it harder for meaningful political change to happen. This idea is related to topics like "Bread and circuses," "False consciousness," and the "Frankfurt School." In simple terms, the focus on "sexual freedom" might take attention away from achieving real freedom.
Allyn argues that the positive views about sex in the 1960s faded because of economic problems in the 1970s, the widespread commercialization of sex, more reports of child abuse, and growing dissatisfaction with the counterculture and New Left movements. People on both the left and right sides of politics also criticized sexual liberation as an ideal. The discovery of herpes increased public fear, which later led to widespread concern about AIDS.
Some radical feminists believed that the sexual freedoms gained during the 1960s, such as less focus on strict monogamy, mainly benefited men and harmed women. In her book Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution, Sheila Jeffreys claimed that the sexual revolution, as defined by men, did not help women gain freedom but instead kept them oppressed. This idea received both support and strong opposition. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, disagreements among feminists about topics like pornography, prostitution, and BDSM led to conflicts known as the "feminist sex wars."
Although it is difficult to track how often teenagers have sex, the number of teenage pregnancies in Western countries like Canada and the UK has steadily decreased since the 1990s. For example, in the United States, there were 61.8 children born per 1,000 teenage girls in 1991. By 2013, this number had dropped to 26.6 births per 1,000 teenage girls.
Unmarried couples who lived together often asked for "palimony," which is money support similar to alimony. Teenagers claimed the right to have sexual relationships with anyone they chose, and some people fought to be topless or nude at beaches.