Sex Sells Extra Credit

We have all heard that “sex sells”, and today more than ever it seems that people are open to talk about sex and dress in a sexual manner in America and other parts of the world. It is almost hard to believe that in our grandparents times clothing composed of long skirts, blouses that revealed only the hands and today clothing has evolved to included miniskirts, and tops that reveal a lot more than hands, and this was all because the sexual revolution.
The sexual revolution started to develop over many years and the exact trigger that started it is unknown, however there are different social changes that help explain how it began. Many argue that is all started in the 60s when the social thought and behaviors related to sexuality began to change from conservative to more “free love” many of which are now integrated today into the mainstream. Hippies believed that we should make love, not war. While the extent to which the sexual revolution involved major changes in sexual behavior is debated, many observers suggest that the main change was not that people had more sex or different types of sex; it was simply that they talked about it more openly than previous generations had done. Also during the 60s women began to use the birth control pill, thus enabling people to engage in premarital sex. Clothing changed to be more revealing. Teen idols such as Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin were drug consumers and more people began to experiment with drugs. Even a book helped in the changing of attitudes, Margaret Mead´s Coming of Age in Samoa brought the sexual revolution to the public scene, as she described the openness and unimportance of virginity in a different culture of Samoa.
Pornography became a form entertainment in magazines, such as the popular playboy and penthouse. Pornography also prevailed in movies such as the 1972s hit behind the green door, which started Marilyn Chambers the all American girl who happened to be a model for soaps with a baby by her side in ads, and also the first porn star.
You would imagine that up to this day prostitution would be legal and people’s morality would down to the grown, but this has not been the case. Since the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s people are more careful about sex and thus become less liberal perhaps that in the 1960s. Today teen idols, such as the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, and Taylor Swift among others openly talk about their virginity and plans on staying that way until marriage. At least that’s what they say; nevertheless it still sets a good example to young people. Today “Virginity Rings” are becoming very popular, they are rings people wear to show that they will not have sex until they get married.
With teen pregnancy and so many STDS, not only AIDS raising I think sexually has evolved very positively. From very conservative in my grandmothers time when people did not even talk about sex, to very openly in the 60s that it could lead to negative outcomes, to today when, in my critique, a lot of kids have sexual exposures in the media yet are choosing to stay away from sexual behaviors. And simply waiting for the appropriate time to do such an important thing as it is to have sex. Maybe after all sex does not sell it could be argued.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_revolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_the_Green_Door
http://www.vh1.com/