This isn't a thread about the amount of ones own experiences but about perception. Deckard who often talks about his free love days in the 60's mentioned in another thread that when he was young people used to have sex with anyone else without much concern. I've heard the same thing about 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's but my own feeling is that while maybe sexual attitudes changed between the 60's and the 50's I'm not sure that since then overall people were having that much more sex in the 60's versus in later decades. I seem to recall that some studies in the 60's that overall people weren't having that much more sex with more partners than the 50's and that the whole free love thing was very limited. More the kind of thing like, "I don't go around sleeping with anyone I meet but I know someone who knows someone who does." I bring this up now also because I've seen a lot of stories saying how there's an epidemic of oral and anal sex among teenagers now. I don't know much about highschool but since I do deal with college students and from waht I can tell it doesn't seem like they have more sex anal, oral or otherwise than when I went to school. For that matter when I was in highschool there was a lot of talk about rampant underage sex due to the sexualization of youth by Madonna. So I'm curious since there's a good age range here on Clutchfans since the 60's what decade do people think had the most sex and were the most casual about it? Whoops forgot to post poll? How do I go back and post a poll with decades?
I cant speak for the 60s or 70s since I wasnt even 15 before 1980. but I do know that it seemed like we didnt worry much about the consequences of casual sex and the even-present pursuit of it in the 80s
I don't know if this will work, but try the edit button; it may let you post a poll again, but not sure. But if you do, I wouldn't say "which decade had more sex" because it's automatically flawed with so many younger people (it seems) and so few ol--uhh, "more experienced folk" around on this board. Not exactly sure the best way to phrase it.
The introduction of oral contraceptives in the 60's must be taken into account. No invention has disassociated sex with consequence as much, since some Dr. gave the king of England a little balloon made of sheep's intestines. Most of the STD stigma disappeared when with penicillin became a treatment for non-viral STD's, but AIDS ended that with a vengeance when it became associated with heterosexual promiscuity, particularly with the nasty side effects like Kaposi's Sarcoma and the very visual destruction, the 80's had to be the low point. The history of sexual promiscuity, therefore, is subject to the whims and mercies of a. nature and b. science. Unfortunately I have a hard time seeing it as anything relating to personal moral fortitude, as many would like to believe, but rather subject to fluxuations in the natural world. BTW, in case you have some view of the world before WWII as a land of moral value, watch movies from before the Hayes code (predicessor to MPAA ratings system). In the musical 42nd Street[i/], Ginger Rogers' character is reintroduced to someone who says, "Oh, sure, I remember anytime Annie. She only said no once, and even then she didn't understand the question." This was circa 1931. Even the 16th century had it's share of promiscuity. You could "get a tickle" in the parlance of the day in just about any port city just by openly asking. Syphilis, it seems, was known by where you were. Italians called it "The Spanish Disease", the French "The English Disease, Russians called it "The Polish Disease" and Arabs called it "The Disease of the Christians". On another tact, I've seen it suggested that the prevalence of sexual innuendo in the media has an inverse association with the actual amount of promiscuous sex which occurs. In other words, when people aren’t having sex for some reason or another you end up with Betty Grabble pinups, or Jessica Simpson Dukes of Hazard remakes.
60s started it 70s was the highlight 80s . .as otto says . .. brought the walls crumbling down Rocket river
anecdotally, there's a lot of evidence people under 30 or so don't really consider oral sex to be sex, it's the clintonian definition- i just wish that mindset prevailed back when i was under 30!
My guess would be the 70's. The 60's started it, but I think it was still mostly limited to a certain subculture. By the 70's the acceptance had spread wider, and it seems like that would be the winner. By the 80's it was still going strong, but Aids, and a new conservativism seem like it might have tapered the numbers off from the 70's. I think the 20's might be pretty high on the list as well. That was the first sexual revolution. The fairly overt references to it in popular songs, literature, plays, etc. give me the idea it was fairly prevelant. I don't know for sure.
I wasn't alive but my boss said 1969 was one crazy year. According to her, guys would literally walk up to a stranger and ask "do you wanna F*&ck? They'd have a 50/50 chance.
I can't believe there has been no mention of baby boomers yet...I'll bet money that were more people born in the five years after WWII ended than any other five year stretch in the 20th century...
Thanks I tried that and didn't see the post a poll function. Anyway I'm just looking for impressions and some discussion so I guess its no big deal if there isn't a poll.
Great info Ottoman and your posts makes a lot of sense. I agree in regard to that people were probably having a lot of sex with different partners prior to WWII but was limiting it to since the 60's since I doubt there are many Clutchfans who were sexually active prior to the 60's and am more interested in getting a sense of perceptions about which decade had more sex.
I've heard that too and which is why I brought up that according to some stories I've read in the media it would seem like every teenager is having oral and anal sex these days even if they don't call it sex. From what I know from college students it doesn't seem like they are having anymore sex of any kind than I and my peers did when I was in college in the early 90's. I haven't conducted a scientific poll or anything. As a side note why I'm so curious about this is that I've always been interested in the "golden age" phenomena of people, even people who weren't old enough to experience fully, looking back and saying some previous period was so much better. Short of wars and depressions I'm not sure that there have been such earthshaking movements in American mores and that overall sexual attitudes and the amount of sex people have and the number of partners have on the whole not swung widely decade by decade. I believe this applies the other way to for people who believe that American society is so much more promiscous now and that there is more underage sex than say the 1950's. I'm would guess that there was a lot of underage sex and promiscuity then but people didn't talk about it that much and teenage marriage was more common.
