She Says The 1960s Sexual Revolution Began In The Conservative 1950s. Is She Right?

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

Sex Education Film - 1950s. Damn good for its time - kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5e6mmhqjsqZa68

[@johnstrawb3521]

Why do those who lament the loss of the 1950s' mores, never seem to want a return to 1950s' tax rates on the rich, effectively around 54%, something that prevented the wealthy of the time from accumulating so much wealth that any one of the thousand wealthiest people could buy the entire American political class?

[@johnnotrealname8168]

@@johnstrawb3521 John Fitzgerald Kennedy got rid of that tax. Try again. It was stupid and it's removal was good.

[@babyboomer9560]

Retired pharmacist here… along will the Pill in the early 60s came a breakthrough in antibiotics. An antibiotic that was able to cure most venereal diseases….syphilis and gonorrhea

[@siriosstar4789]

a bit of trivia - my father a doctor and later a chemist along with another man at the labs ( i forgot which company ) created the low dose estrogen pill . They both received no credit for their work due to company policies . a pity that the chemists received no royalties for their work . if they did my father said i would be a billionaire . 😂

[@BeLoud13]

Right. Syphilis is still easy to treat, but gonorrhea has antibiotic resistant strains which are more challenging now.

[@Krose333]

There's a scene in the 1967 movie "To Sir With Love" where the teacher tells one of the students that her latest, most fashionable clothing is not so new. She assures him that her clothes is the latest. He tells her that her minidress resembles what was fashionable for women in the 1920s.

[@jahirareyes1102]

Iam not sure about that. I know there is a huge misconception of what women wore in the 1920s.In a fashion plate from 1895, the hemlines are pretty much to the ground - they only have enough clearance to not be in the dirt. In a plate from 1925, the hemlines have gone up, but only to what we would call tea length now. These are both examples of day dresses from the two different eras. This is where things get interesting, It has a fancy dress from the 1896 the hemline? It’s the same as what will be common for daywear in the 1920s. In the evening, it was VERY common, particularly with fancy dress, for dresses to suddenly go up by a bit - sometimes to knee length. This is true throughout most of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The whole “ankle” thing is a total myth. In fact, girls didn’t wear longer hemlines until they were between 16 to 18 years old. In 1895, tea length was pretty normal. So what women in the 1920’s were really doing was just not lowering their hemlines as they grew up anymore. The shorter dresses in and of themselves wasn’t all that shocking. The fittedness of the 1895 dresses versus the 1925 dresses probably also looks visually jarring if you don’t know your complete fashion history. Many 1920s dresses, had fuller sleeves.

[@Darthborg]

Thanks again David for these wonderful interviews.

[@mb3799]

She ignored the introduction of the birth control pill in 1960. That was significant.

[@matthewatwood8641]

She's carefully choosing which things to acknowledge and which things to just leave out. It's pretty clear. It's been over fifty years now.We know what happened. Those of us who grew up in the seventies and later and got to live our lives, experiencing the consequences of the behavior people demonstrated around sexuality and family and everything else in the sixties, no, exactly what happened.

[@Folkstone1957]

In what way was the pill significant ?

[@matthewatwood8641]

@Folkstone1957 you cannot be serious

[@JerryShunk-h8s]

You are correct & abortion was also gaining steam in availability!

[@suecamaione]

The pill was not readily available until the 1970s. And that is when the Women’s Movement exploded in 1970-1980. Agency over your own body and the increase in pleasure due to not worrying made the biggest issue. The anti war movement in the 60s saw women only as helpmates and supporters of men. These two items created a perfect social storm for liberation.

[@JohnDrummondVA]

Rhymes with a bit of the genealogy I've done in my own family amazingly. Mr. Hoffman I am so grateful for your amazing content on KZbin. It's an historical record that I think will be valued for all time (if we, collectively, have a lick of sense). Much admiration & respect to you.

[@Gwahlur]

Your channel is a treasure trove of interesting content! I'm always excited to see what you upload next.

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

Thank you for your comment. If your resources allow, I would sure appreciate your using the THANKS button under any of my videos including the one you have commented on. It is something new that KZbin is beta testing and would mean a great deal for my continuing efforts. David Hoffman filmmaker

[@kevingrimbeek2106]

Hi David, I am "a baby boomer" who falls within the era as discussed by Elaine and I am happy to say that my parents remained faitully married until they both passed away and my wife and I have been together for 50 years in October this year! I think this has a lot to do with those two words, "I Do" which if taken seriously is that "glue" we all seek. A personal point of view is that "my wife is the mother of my two children" who have already rewarded us with five beautiful grandchildren. 🤗

[@neilreynolds3858]

I like you and your parents. If you make a promise "for better or for worse" that doesn't have the rider "until something better comes along". Fulfilling our promises hasn't meant much to people for 60 years. It is not even expected. If you go into a marriage 90%, it's not going to last. You have to be fully committed and Americans don't want to do that anymore. They want to find "fulfillment" without letting go of any options or sticking by their obligations even to their own children.

[@tommas2674]

here here. and my grands and all the grands I knew were faithful and in love too.

[@tommas2674]

what I saw and what the groups responsible will blame anything else: When Nikita braggingly told us "WE will destroy America from the inside", oh and that demonicrat party went all in, hollywood/medias: music, movies, tv, inside colleges/univ. as professors and sending their "children", black peoples churches MLK took commie leadership training had a commie speech writer (for power for himself) Malcom went the other hater route Islam, Mohamad Allie aka Casious Clay and then feared for his life, ...MLK traitor to his wife, OUR Country and "his people" as snake oil salespeople are, the We will destroy...We is collective of hater aggressor nations and their people, and they are now inside groups pushing that mutilations "finish the job" as traitor joe and the dems say of Finishing off America (destroy now Totally minds BODIES and spirit)...oh the drugs too ARE freedom, instead of OUR Industries and MFG ALL, ,,, Those WE went for / go for the MOST undeveloped minds first. Vietnam: the propagandas of the "bad Americans was as is Rampant, it's was a lie: Americans as was the usual were trying to stop the SLAUGHTER of the South Vietnamize from the commie funded vietcong BUT hollywood and those we let in as professors had been pushing what the commies, middle east...wanted us out us not protecting those people even as those people wanted us to. (jane fonda). the steps of subverting a country: degrade the country, demoralize the people, ... use lying propagandas too of "environment" now bogus "climate" to TAKE take take = gone. We were told that too, we saw it happening, but so too men pushed womens lib to have women do it All (take the pill experiment and get abortions) AS long as they don't have decent schedules or make money one can live on, with the collapse of the economy and this time it looks like they have made one that will stick, the push to ban abortions, (jobs and money) the good thing that came from that which is wanted revoked is women do not have to put up with a person who is NOT a partner but wants a mommie/wife in one despots. Subversives and the bogus fake virtue bleeding heart liberals that love them TO TAKE take take...And we still let other nations haters in. OH and the land of rhw USA WAS savage, some savage tribes scattered about, killing of their prey and themselves as the incas and aztec did, the British Colonist saved them! even saved them and the land from just being used. The Europeans that came when we had room loved America foundation NOT for what America MUST do for them, b.s.. Unless we leash OUR politicals NO MORE international get together orgs of despots working on crushing around the globe citizens and stop watching hollywood crap and vulgar violence criminal promoting music too, drastically (but so many love their even silent perversions meet regardless of the damages (People were better) thought long term, thought of their Fellow citizens) because we are done, china must be stopped as others from being inside. Protest for ALL our industries and MFG in triplicate again for products that compete NOT people forced to clerk (they call sells) for crap, back, protest to SAVE OUR FOOD / RANCH FARMS even from bill gates, MONOPOLIES, ,,,not for mind body and spirit destroying perversions and drugs. They are not selling drug infused candy (with fentanyl being put in candy...smh) weak criminal minds use drugs...gov. and gov. agencies have been infilthtraited and we must all do our part to clean it out. Just because men and some women LOVE music and movies that show Crimes against women of the promoting kind, doesn't mean Well they are wrong to support that...

[@Myytzlplk]

You're a lucky sonofagun. 50yo, my parents were boomers, and couldn't have been more narcissistic and self-involved if they tried. And acted like they were conservative on rhe outside. Hypocrites to their core

[@mikesully110]

I work in school when I was a schoolchild in the 1990's almost every child's parents were married, only 1 child in 30 had divorced parents and it was well known. Now in 2023 most children have unmarried parents, I'd say over 50%; I'd say regarding this video if you graphed it out, divorce and premarital sex in the 1920's / 1950's or 60's - on the graph they would be tiny tiny bumps compared to the exponential growth of the 2010's +

[@chesterproudfoot9864]

I think it's quite appropriate to draw parallels with the 1920s. Perhaps those who laugh at the "grandparent comparison" haven't studied much on that era.

[@johncharleson8733]

The main differences being: A) The 'lost' generation of the roaring 20's didn't create a 'religion' out of industrialization, unlike their children. B) The 'lost' generation of the roaring 20's didn't create a 'religion' out of reveling, unlike their grandchildren. The young women in the video, while claiming to take a 'long view', is taking a very short view. If one really takes a 'long' view, one can see sex and novelties in many generations-----difference being these earlier generations didn't overtly combat their core culture while reveling and/or utilizing industrial process. She is not properly juxtaposing the excess of fallen nature in the 'grandparents' generation to the wholesale apostasy of the 'parents' and the 'grandchildren'.

[@celestepalm6949]

@@johncharleson8733 Actually, the *wealthy* 'lost' generation of the roaring '20's _did_ have their own religion, which was their parents & grandparents religion as well. It's just not acknowledged or spoken of.

[@johncharleson8733]

@@celestepalm6949 I am not sure you understood my comment.

[@STho205]

She is taking a purposed short view. She is cherry picking to come to a spurious conclusion, while making valid observations on the way there. Clever but logically flawed. She is also treating the 50s middle age (30/40 somethings) as homogenous with no detail and trying to compare them to youth cultures (teens and early 20s)...and offering no context of the Ward and June Clevers born in 1922...now 40 with kids. But offering detail and nuance to carefully selected counter generations. Always be suspect of these presentations. They are common in politics and media.

[@johncharleson8733]

@@STho205 Especially with 60's kids who were encouraged into nefarious corners of academia.

[@ronsanchez6992]

As a high school senior in 1967, most girls were in fear of pregnancy if they went "all the way". "The pill" was too new . One girl did get pregnant though, 🤰, she was not permitted to accept her diploma at graduation and could not participate.

[@lornocford6482]

In the UK the pill was only available to married women untill 1974.

[@clewismessina6630]

Thank you, Mr. Hoffman, for sharing your archive of material with everyone. I believe these first hand accounts bring much more depth and context to our relatively recent history than any textbook could (not knocking textbooks, but the form as communication has limits a video like this really can transcend). I hope these treasures reach even wider audiences. We need them.

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

So far I have not gotten the audience I believe this material deserves. Thank you for your comment. David Hoffman filmmaker

[@drewpall2598]

David as I said in my other comment, I found Elaine Tyler May fascinating so I search on your channel for more of Elaine Tyler May interview came across two more short interview clips, she another fascinating woman I could listen to for hours on end. 😊

[@0ooTheMAXXoo0]

She is saying the 1920s is when the sexual revolution started. The generation in-between were different from that of the early 1900s and 1960s. Your title is not derived from this video, maybe there is other footage that informed your choice of title?

[@georgeisaacs8096]

She didn't say that the " 60's sexual revolution began in the conservative 1950's ". She doesn't even use the word conservative to describe what she see's happening in the 1950's. She is saying is that the 1960's were a continuation of the 1920's, or the early decades of the 20th century, with a brief, unexplained, pause in the middle. The title to this video is misleading.

[@Wilkins_Micawber]

I was a teenager in the 1960s, I searched for the free love they spoke of. I'm now 77 I'm still looking.

[@zerosoma33]

You were protected

[@jlrutube1312]

So she says that the 60s generation was normal because they were like the 20s generation and therefore it was the 50s that were strange or abnormal. But why limit it to three generations? If you take the long view and look at the 1600s and the 1700s and the 1800s you can see that the 50s generation was the historically normal generation and the 20s and 60s generations were the abnormal ones. I guess she thought we were stupid and wouldn't think of that.

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

Her point, not clearly mentioned in this clip but mentioned in the complete interview, indicates that the nuclear family was a unique product of the postwar 1950s generation. In the 1600s the nuclear family didn't exist living in its own terms without relatives etc. David Hoffman filmmaker

[@jlrutube1312]

@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker To me, that doesn't seem like her point. I think her point was that the lenient attitude toward sex outside of marriage and the problem of an increasing divorce rate was going on in both the 20's and the 60's so the grandparents of the 20's and the children of the 60's were normal whereas the people of the 40's and 50's who thought sex should be kept within marriage and thought divorce was very very bad were the abnormal group. That was her point. But my point was that in the 1600s and 1700s and 1800s they shared the idea of the 50's generation that sex outside of marriage was bad and that divorce was an awful thing. So the issue wasn't whether the family included grandpa and grandma. She just tried to pull a fast one by just picking out three generations and comparing them without looking at pretty much all of history. She didn't fool me.

[@jimralston4789]

@@jlrutube1312 We only got a portion of the whole point and that was our collective memory of the nuclear family as the traditional family model is based on just the short period of time post WWII. That it was in fact an aberattion. Western society was in fact becoming more liberal before the depression and WWII disrupted that pattern and then it resumed again.

[@mtman2]

​@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker An absolute complete lie..!

[@mtman2]

​If anything that woman's a witch and terrifying as to the responses as if she had any validity = these are mostly very ignorant and low info people without a grip on decent reality or commonsense...! A real Sodom & Gommorah grasp of the world-> America was mot built on such sewage these type minds swim in ss somehow acceptable...!

[@celestepalm6949]

This video's title is misleading. Sounds more like she's comparing 60's youth culture to the '20's/'30's Gilded Age than to the 1950's.

[@matthewatwood8641]

Yes, and the comparison she draws is vague.

[@RavenNl403]

Interesting interview. Thank you David ❤

[@Roger-r7s]

A wild pendulum swing between license and promiscuity and puritannical repression does not represent any real social and cultural progress. But it is quite useful for keeping people confused, distracted, disoriented and evading the more deeper serious systemic challenges and problems.

[@turkturkleton2671]

Right, debauchery and sexual degeneracy isn't new by any means but every time it becomes promoted and more common, a society collapses

[@cottonclarksa]

I find her comments interesting, but I question the correlations, or lack thereof. Most notably, she does not mention the establishment and finally the FDA approval of the contraception pill (1960). It would seem to me that its creation would have had as much to do with the so-called "sexual revolution" of the 1960s as anything else. Then again, this is evidently a brief snippet of a longer form Q&A session, so perhaps she mentioned it elsewhere in the dialog.

[@tula1433]

You always have great videos !

[@SadieMage]

I was just thinking about that. I think what really tore family life apart and disrupted things in the more negative sense; was industry. The depression really caused the people of the 1950s to get the worst of that impact. Bc then we saw all those families who usually might’ve been more reluctant to jump on the industry train, now rushing to dedicate their lives working, just to prevent their loved ones ever having to face such hardships as they did in the depression. I think every generation has similarities with some anomalies, but that the current events of the time also made major impacts in these areas as well!

[@RIVALContentJammerz]

She deliberately leaves out key variables, so she can keep her message idealistic, but the she was/is a college professor, so.

[@LindaCasey]

My grandfather pointed this out .. 23 skidoo 💕

[@drewpall2598]

I found Elaine Tyler May fascinating and comparing the 60's youth to that of the roaring 20's of their grandparents. WW1 ended on November 11, 1918, by 1920 the economy had pick up women gain the right to vote in the United State on August 18, 1920, things were looking up as they did after WW2 the parents of the baby boomers had gone through the great depression of the 1930's and WW2 of the first half of the 1940's. Thanks Elaine Tyler May for being one of David Hoffman interview subject.

[@matthaddershow]

Some points of facts though that undercut the argument. The idea that the 50's were "bizarre by historical standards" @1:48 is actually a bizarre statement. Prior to 1900, the divorce rate was less than 1 divorce for every 1,000 people in a given year. In fact, as long as we've had records in the US it was under 1 per 1000 persons (in any given year). So, divorce HISTORICALLY was "bizarre". So, claiming that the 50's were "bizarre" only works IF you compare and contrast them to the 20's and 60's but overlook, the 1800's and prior AND the 0s, 10's, 30's and 40's.....which makes no sense... Why would you only examine 2 decades (20s and 60s) then use that as the basis for defining "normal"? Logically it makes no sense. Even during the 20's the divorce rate stood at 1.7, a stark contrast to the 3.2 per 1000 as the end of the 60's (which wasn't the highest in the period mind you). It also overlooks that the 20's were an economic post war boom period that ended in the Great Depression and the 50's sought a return to more traditional times of stability after two decades of economic distress and war... That is to say a more "traditional" mindset that existed PRIOR to the 20's which was given the name the "roaring 20's" for a multitude of reasons. The bigger point is that if we look at just the numbers, the narrative here doesn't actually fit. Unless the numbers are wrong...which no one is arguing. Also, the 50's weren't the only era that saw the divorce rate decline, throughout the decades there have been many years where it went down... In 1940, the rate was 2 divorces per 1,000 people, but reached 3.4 in 1947. The rate dipped over the next few years, ending the decade with a 2.7 per 1,000 rate and 397,000 divorces. So, the rate was already declining BEFORE the 50's hit. I think the question is whether or not our PERCEPTION of the 60's in this area (divorce) aligns with the facts. Yes, divorce was MORE common in the 60's than in the 50's but if we rewind a few decades, divorce was historically even LESS common. So, again, taking a decade or two or three and using that as the basis for defining "normal" is a bit myopic. Also, I don't think that we can draw a correlation between the 50's being more "conservative" is what leads to the 60's being more sexually "free". Why does one necessitate the other? If so, what about the "conservative" 1810's or 1710's did they lead to the sexual revolutions the decade that followed? Of course not. I think a more logical question is WHAT happened in the 60's that DID open up the door to more sexual activity? I'd say that "the pill" had the greatest impact. Developed in 1950, the FDA approved the first oral contraceptive in 1960, and within two years of its initial distribution, 1.2 million American women were using the pill....add to that antibiotics which allowed for the treatment of common STDs/STIs and you have your answer. The cost:risk to engage in the activity went down. As the risk declined, the behavior increased. As the behavior increased, the eventual acceptance OF that behavior also increased, which lead to more of that behavior. It wasn't until more serious viruses were discovered later that antibiotics COULDN'T treat, that created wake up calls in the minds of some people. The ONLY thing that came out of the 1950's that in any way directly contributed to the rise in both pre/extra-marital sex in the 60's was the pill. The conservative perception of the nature of the era in the 50's had nothing to do with the 60's. If the pill had been developed in 1940 and released in 1950, it's logical to conclude that by 1959 premarital sex would have been far more common.

[@blitzkreig4887]

This is why i hate intellectuals. Everyone decides the conclusion before they come up with their arguments. And yet, they claim otherwise.

[@matthewfarmer2520]

I love to be a student in her class, she must be still teaching now a days or she stop practicing teaching. Your information in the description was as always interesting. Thanks for the details, you take care Mr Hoffman film maker 🎥🎞️😊

[@JWF99]

To me It does kinda seem like an overly conservative 1950s did perhaps help create a specific counterculture, then drove them right into the arms of a full blown sexual revolution (no pun intended!) ✌😉✌

[@interlooper]

That is exactly what happened I would say.

[@JWF99]

@@interlooper 👍👍

[@ryobiman]

She right… actually it post WW2 and adoption of infants is an indicator.

[@Mr.EeToMyself]

When was birth control introduced?

[@maywalker997]

@@Mr.EeToMyself Condoms were around at the turn of the 20th century but the introduction of the contraceptive Pill is credited with enabling a lot of the 1960s sexual revolution to happen because it was during the 60s that rules on prescibing it were loosened so that any adult woman who wanted it could have it (before then access to it in the 50s had been restricted).

[@maywalker997]

A lot of those unwanted WW2 pregnancies were also the consequence of rape, in Berlin alone an estimated 100,000 women were raped when the city fell.

[@Mr.EeToMyself]

@@maywalker997 Due to banking and investing... I wonder. The introduction of birth control sure messed up the math on social security though. But that's all a different subject altogether.

[@memyname1771]

Divorce rate? A quarter of one percent in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1969 California passed no fault divorce, and other states soon followed. Divorce increased in the 1970s all the way up to seven tenths of one percent. The sexual revolution has been ongoing for centuries, it just became more visible in the 1960s as the hippies drew back the curtains that previoulcovered the activity. "The School of Venus, or the ladies delight" was published in 1680. Books of songs from the 1600s and 1700s extolled the joys of casual sex. In 1873, the Comstock Law prohibited sending condoms through the mail (that wouldn't be needed unless someone was concerned about other people's sexual activities). In 1918, the Crane ruling legalized doctor prescribed contraceptives used for the "prevention of disease" (husbands and wives were generally not getting diseases from each other if they confined their sexual activity to within their family). Often, throughout history, women have experienced a shorter first pregnancy after marriage than other pregnancies that have followed.

[@martincooper9982]

The social attitudes around divorce changed so radically in the 20th century, that I think her view on it is too narrow. It indicates a lot more than her argument allows. She also ignores the social effects of two 2 world wars.

[@RIVALContentJammerz]

She deliberately leaves out key variables, so she can keep her message idealistic.

[@IrishIwasJewish]

​@@RIVALContentJammerzthat's women for u

[@traceyoung5592]

The question isn't when these changes occurred, the question is "what caused these changes"? What caused/causes cultural changes? Especially in the U.S.?

[@rene-rv6pp]

O yes this is very actual. But we are being very ignorant about human nature. Just an example :in roman empire just very few people knew the name of the father. Thosewere called patricios. The rest knew only the mother. Boys were so made by encouters in any street. Normally not very consensual

[@davydeuce]

On The Road by Jack Kerouac was the codex that fuelled the 60s sex and drug culture. It also inspired Americans to travel more, and pushed up the sales of Levis jeans.

[@klaasj7808]

already started in the roaring 20's. bonnie and clyde was pure sex.

[@justinkittle7401]

So when survival is on the line loyalties are strengthened by hard times which is why people stayed together but when abundance was common place it changed. Spoiled children never know what they have until they no longer have it ay.

[@danlumsden7531]

This all may be true but it fails to look into the generation in between that faced depression and WW 2. Those events had to have a chilling effect on the sexual revolution of the roaring 20s ... Look what happened when the war was over. BTW I was born in '42.

[@michellepeterson6320]

So weird, just thinking about this today and found this video. My grandmother (mother's mother) in conservative SD in the 50s was working. Odd to have 2 parents working in late 50s, so I thought. But maybe not so odd. Sexual revoluation is marked by MUCH more than having sex. It was about roles, working outside the home, etc...

[@mikeb2777]

I was in elementary school in the 50's but there was this one girl. She was great with a Hula Hoop.

[@warrenny]

This lady. I wish so much that there was a contemporary female KZbinr that has her personality. She is very precise but casual in her approach....without being preachy, immature or other turnoffs I see in today's KZbinrs.

[@warrenny]

@@rajarsi6438 sorry. This is a grownups conversation. You should go back to your playdate.

[@ronald3836]

@@warrenny such a big boy, you.

[@warrenny]

@@ronald3836 thank you.

[@Archer335]

Elaine Tyler May Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota American Studies & History

[@Mike__G]

I distinctly remember my grandmother saying to me that sex was a very small part of marriage. She lived from the early 1900s to the late 1970s. She and my grandfather and my parents (young marrieds in the 50s) and all of my aunts and uncles except one remained married and kept their promises “until death do us part.” This was generally true for my parents’ generation. Not so for the flower children who are now “the administration.”

[@lornocford6482]

Maybe it's to do with the hight of someone's libido. Your grandmother doesn't sound very highly sexed. If your grandfather didn't stray, he obviously wasn't either. I imagine it's easier for people to stay faithful if their libidos are compatible.

[@Mike__G]

@ Well they had 5 kids, so something was going on there. I think a better explanation is that our culture is much more highly sexualized than theirs was.

[@lornocford6482]

@@Mike__G children being born is more to do with whether or not there's reliable contraception being used. People staying together is to do with if they are able to not stay together. It's not always possible to get out of a relationship when divorce is illegal; only available to men, and women only in very extreme circumstances; is shameful in society; is shameful in the family. It's also about women having rights to be able to financially take care of themselves and their children. A sexualised society doesn't mean people have sex more frequently or with more partners. It certainly doesn't mean that people don't fall in love and make a commitment. Wanting sex is natural. Restrictions have to be put on people to stop them. That's more what happened. Allow people to have sex, use contraception and not stay in bad relationships and then the truth will show up. Your grandmother probably meant that there's a lot to a marriage, so sex is just one of the many small ingredients.

[@mikerouch416]

Thanks David

[@Shogun-qs6sv]

Sex in junior high for me in 67 to 69 was just starting to explode. But it was quite secret then.Girls would invite me to slumber parties. Parents didn’t know a thing. I convinced my mom to send me to summer camp to Yosemite to meet up my first girlfriend Dorothy and her Girls Camp was easy to sneak over to her sleeping bag. Then in high school I was asked out by many different girls who were on the pill and ready to test it. It was mostly very square girls, the gorgeous ones seemed prudish. Some I’m still pals with as we just had our 53rd reunion.

[@garlandalmarode6396]

Doing something doesn't mean you approve of it. People can actually acknowledge somethings they ve done weren't always the right things to do.

[@mortsey]

Interesting perspective, and I guess I knew this to some extent but had never really thought of it this way. It's almost as if the depression and the intersection of facing and staring down certain death during WW2 hit a reset on society from the decadence and societal revolution of the 1920s. Interestingly there was also a revival of religion in the post war era. Churches were bursting at the seems as service men who perhaps found God in the fox holes of Europe and in the islands and ship berths of the Pacific flocked back and sought stability from the chaos. We're their children simply reverting back to the way humanity has always behaved or was the conservative swing so severe that the counter swing so severe that we haven't seen any type of backward swing of the pendulum. As an old aunt who was from the WW2 generation once told me, when life is so uncertain and death seems so immenent you become introspective and want to make sure that your life counts for something bigger.

[@JulesGardening]

I think you are on to it my friend. Folk tend to get more religious as mortality becomes more "real" as the funerals increase. I would say the depression followed by war accelerated that awareness. Appreciate your perspective.

[@ВладимирКруглов-к9о]

She's not really that much of a looker but a great natural hair and nice feminine voice make her damn attractive! How I wish at least some women today were like her...

[@scottandrewhutchins]

I was assigned May's Homeward Bound when I was in college.

[@princeterryjoshuahwhite6094]

The 1950’s were from what I see, a moral and ideal period of time; a model for us all. I am 42 years old in 2024, and a born again Christian.

[@mojrimibnharb4584]

You have not understood this.

[@mattjorgdbb]

That's because you worship Mammon. The 1950s really were an ideal economic time. The 1960s through the 1980s were economically volatile entrenched with inflation. We defeated cooled the inflation under Nixon and Reagan. First by price controls and getting us the rest of the way off the gold standard under Nixon. Then by teaching the worker they must be slaves under Raegen and the economy has boomed ever since. Morally, I have no idea what you're talking about. The baby boomers are one of the most molested by their parents generations in history. The 1950s were all sundown towns and women were treated as animals so the man could enjoy the benefits of a new Roman paganism.

[@jamiereife5581]

I am a child of the 60’s and I grew up very conservative and I still am. My parents were conservative and I knew they loved me, they wanted the best for me, and would not lead me astray, so I obeyed them because I loved them and I knew they loved me.

[@ivanrorick]

1950s was reaction to liberalization of society that had roots in the 19th century ("free love" was everywhere in the 19th century, for example) and really got going in the early 20th. 50s conservatism was brief countertrend along a general trajectory of liberalization that started in the 19th. So was the Baby Boom, a brief countertrend against an over trend of smaller families that started around 1800. It's true that the Greatest Generation was more conservative than the Lost Generation, but not more than the generation before the Lost Generation and the generations before them.

[@marymary1877]

Our Lady of Fatima told St. Jacinto Marto that “The sins which cause most souls to go to hell are the sins of the flesh,”(that is sins against chastity.) and showed her hell where souls fall into hell like snowflakes in a blizzard. Don’t be fooled Christians, regardless of domination, Catholic or Protestant. God is not s modernist…he is all holy and he is is eternally the same. Sin is still sin. The Ten Commandments still apply. If you’re living like the unchaste pagans do, you are not “once saved, always saved”. You will be cast out. Psalm 24:3-4 “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? It is he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”

[@hannotn]

Fascinating responses. Interesting how so many who experienced the Sixties and must have reflected some of what she talks about, but have retreated back into deep social conservatism. Admittedly, the US is far more socially conservative than the rest of the developed world (the Iran of the First World?) but such a reversal of direction, especially when it's in the direction of Christofascism, is quite amazing.

[@jasonlee8156]

That is a deplorable trend. A morally loose or libertine society will always be preferable to a Christofacsist one.

[@EyeLean5280]

Would love to see more of her interview!

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIC5ooGcf7ebg7c David Hoffman Filmmaker

[@Kyle-xd4ep]

It'll be refreshing once if everybody in society just looked at things at face value and put blame where it did or didn't belong

[@effdonahue6595]

🎼Free love? Don’t bank on it baby🎼

[@ziggy33399]

The sexual revolution began in the mid to late 60’s. It was part of the hippie generation. That’s when there were, for the first time, “love ins” (never happened before). Each generation is different. I was there . In the 1950’s divorce went down because the WAR ended! The depression ended!

[@SandfordSmythe]

A lot of adults were having fun also.

[@NativeNewMexican]

Care to explain the massive promiscuity of the generation two before the hippies as May describes then? The 1930's after alcohol was de-prohibited was a factor. "never happened before" is a bit off, there's a book "Orgies 1890-1930. Erotic Art Photography Vol. 7" you can look into. The greatest generation was the fluke, not the "free love" types at least that's what May is saying. I think there's been several "great" generations that realized the world is better if you emphasize "nuclear" families, but It's not the norm from what I can tell.

[@SandfordSmythe]

@@NativeNewMexican I'm still trying to figure out the meaning of the 20's flappers "that kissed"

[@neilreynolds3858]

Right after the war, divorce rates skyrocketed. Many couples had gotten married before the husband went into service and the war had changed them both so much they were strangers. By about 1950, things had settled down and there was money to be made which meant financial stability so there was less reason to divorce. However, both parties had been married once already and they'd been screwing around during the war and that had become a discrete habit. I think the main difference between the 50s and 60s was that discretion was no longer mandatory and birth control meant it was no longer dangerous.

[@wizardmongol4868]

@@neilreynolds3858 except it wasnt about "discretion" this seems more like a exageration based on a few people that just wants to assume it

[@oreocarlton3343]

She is right 1920s aka the Roaring 20s art deco, flappers, jazz etc. were proto 60s. Sons and daughters of the 20s gave birth to hippies, that generation was the so called quiet/great generation

[@kimberHD45]

The progressive era is a better marker of the beginning of a major cultural shift that led to the sexual revolution in the ‘60’s. It’s always incremental, but it always aligns with political shifts that reflect religious practice in society. If you want to predict a political shift, take the pulse of religion among the populace.

[@suegeew9727]

I wonder if she would say that today? I don't think it's easy to be a modern historian.

[@carlthornton3076]

Very Good!... #150 ✝ {7-25-2023}

[@Tuppence1966]

My God ! An educated woman . What a pleasure to hear her use proper English , don’t care what she says 😂

[@ADAMSIXTIES]

Actually the title is a misnomer; she doesn't compare it to the '50s (maybe that was another part of the interview?) But I think she's missing some major criteria in comparing the '60s to the early 20th century; namely the comparative affluence, easy access to birth control, and even though it was pre-Roe, there was some access to abortion. Also much easier to get a divorce. Rock, technology, mind expansion, all played a part in the "sexual revolution". And the '70s was an expansion of that.

[@BlackOperations530]

Don't forget about the influence of Hollywood and mens magazines like Playboy also played a very big role in the development sexual revolution.

[@numbersix8919]

The 1960s were a continuation of Roaring Twenties trends that had been interrupted by the Great Depression and World War Two, that re-organized the material conditions of life for most people through poverty (demobilization of the economy) and then war (total mobilization).

[@neilreynolds3858]

Yeah, if you look at birth rates since around 1900, there was no baby boom. There was a birth dearth during the 1930s and WW2 and birth rates returned to normal until around 1964. I'm assuming that birth rates have something to do with sex. That's what I've heard. So you had people who had been raised in what must have been sexually repressive times after sexually liberated times suddenly finding out that they didn't have to be discrete anymore. The pendulum swung but it ended up in a position where sex was open and commitment was taboo. Boomers have embraced that as liberation but I'm not sure it's an improvement.

[@numbersix8919]

@@neilreynolds3858 Birth dearth! Did not know that.

[@danmiller4725]

Marijuana is an aphrodisiac. I am 78 and remember that sleeping around was the thing all the way to when the AIDS epidemic scared everyone. It did me.

[@matthewatwood8641]

That was you not marijuana. Stop trying to blame something besides yourself. Take accountability. That's part of your problem right there.

[@damnwhores]

@@matthewatwood8641 LOL of course the one and only reply is some rando who is mad over his precious little weed getting talked about in a not-so favorable light. Dude, you could never understand the issue from decades ago and believe that your "magic" weed is actually somehow beneficial to your life when all it does it make you unproductive and stupid enough to start shit with people who don't like weed. Expressing anger or frustration before logic and understanding. I'm glad weed is really helping your mentality.

[@lornocford6482]

I found it to be the opposite affect. I also didn't find the 80s to put people off sleeping around. I was in the UK though.

[@vjr5261]

I am a child of the 60s. I did not act like my grandparents at all.

[@onionman5727]

Not too late to put it on your bucket list?

[@matthewatwood8641]

I think it's like with raising kids. Kids need discipline and freedom both. As a parent, it's necessary to find a balance. That's what we need to do as a species.

[@ianmackenzie686]

When was this interview conducted?

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

Please read the description. 1989. DAVID HOFFMAN filmmaker

[@ianmackenzie686]

@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker Doh! Thanks😁

[@janaeroshumba760]

Probably goes at least back to 18th-cent libertinism, but the precise timeline is less important than crushing its proponents, and reversing it.

[@yme3267]

Birth control, internet, women's rights..... 🤷‍♂️ But..... ok. Sure.... children revolted against the "extreme conservatism". Not shocking by anyone. It just never stopped and continued to grow till now 🤷‍♂️ (again, bc of the the other two listed)

[@Pudentame]

Many of the parents in the 50s had gone through WW2. It's no wonder they turned out weird.

[@mkathrynblacker5960]

I really would like to hear her sight her sources. Just because somebody says something doesn't make it true.

[@lornocford6482]

I wonder what the media was teaching at these times? It could be that after the war people wanted to be attached to a partner. A trauma response after so much loss. I wonder what the DV statistics were? Many returning soldiers had a trauma response of violence. It can create a trauma bond. People may have stayed together out of a sense of duty or guilt to leave someone who fought in a war.

[@elijah2078]

Everything began to free fall downward with Madelyn O'Hare's objection to prayer in public schools.

[@DocNightingale-hp6zd]

Prayer should not be in schools. If one religion has prayer its a gateway to all other religions to get into schools. NO WAY.

[@elijah2078]

​@@DocNightingale-hp6zd This country was founded on Christian beliefs and principles, if someone wants to worship a dead god, or no god, then maybe America isn't for them. One question, how has the removal of prayer in our schools worked out for America? Shootings, nurseries, and suicide is now prevalent because God has been asked to leave.

[@DocNightingale-hp6zd]

@ no it was NOT. Youre uneducated. This country is not a Christian country because of the freedom of religion amendment. Dumba**. And crime has actual gone down if you do some research because of technology and social media providing a platform for issues then back then where things were gatekept because of controlled outlets.

[@DocNightingale-hp6zd]

@@elijah2078 no it was NOT. Youre uneducated. This country is not a Christian country because of the freedom of religion amendment. And crime has actual gone down if you do some research because of technology and social media providing a platform for issues. back then where things were gatekept because of controlled outlets.

[@DocNightingale-hp6zd]

@@elijah2078 the reason youre seeing all these « end time » scenerios is because TODAYS age have been given a platform with the help of social media and technology. Back then things were gatekept and they controlled the outlets.

[@ace-of-space]

The only arc I experienced is "I'll never be like my parents" til thy become parents. The conundrum.

[@johnnotrealname8168]

Well playboy began in the '50s and there was a newspaper article in 1913 about how talking about sex opened up and Clive Staples Lewis in Mere Christianity (1952) wrote about how discussing sex became so much more common (A lot more.) however in the '60s, homosexuality was permitted, contraception, abortion in many states and much more. To deny there was a radical shift in the '60s is asinine.

[@hebrewkazu]

If the first sexual revolution happened during the roaring 20's it likely ended as a direct result of the Great Depression. It lasted longer this time, but just as we're headed toward another depression Roe v. Wade was overturned... 🤔

[@DrGarricks]

There are two trends, not one. The 50 year Kondratieff cycle that she focuses on and the longer trend downwards that Karl Zimmerman explored and most lay people see in the history. She needs to do a lot more study to see the bigger picture. Yes the 1920s mirrors the 1960s to some extent, but it was short lived, just like the 1880s that was the previous spike of the same character. However, each has started from a lower base and descended further. The sexual laxity of the 1960s has continued, the previous ones didn't.

[@CanopusJupiter]

THE ROARING 20's.... Ohhh !!! WERE ALREADY HERE !!! 😃😆😂

[@matta.5363]

Historically, prosperity precedes decadence in most civilizations. From my point of view, EVERY decade since the Gilded Age has witnessed a greater decline in America's ability to function as a free, representative republic.

[@Genarii]

That unusual middle generation (The Greatest Generation) came of age in a depression that featured the Dust Bowl and ended with a World War that required unity and solidarity to win. Some would say it was "bad times making hard men" who then went on to make good times and soft men. I don't buy that argument since it only seems to apply to Western societies, if even those. I do think the Depression and WW2 had a large role to play in the attitudes of the conservative Greatest Gens, however.

[@apocalypseplease1514]

She ignored WW2 and its conservatizing effect on those who went through it. Its not bizzare, they just didnt need any more instability.

[@MisterPersuasion]

The modern sexual revolution did start in the 1950's and was directly related to the advent of Playboy Magazine. The "Traditional Values" that people refer to are actually Biblical Values, and come directly from the Bible. During hard times people turn towards God and seek Him. The Great Depression and WWII drove many towards God. Hugh Hefner and Playboy Magazine enticed society away from God. Then in the beginning of the 1960's the Birth Control Pill caused an explosion of sex without consequence. It's been all down hill since! If you think about it, our entire society is run not by money, but by SEX! Take a look at our elected officials. No matter what else they stand for, if they are promoting sexual freedom (Democrats) they get elected. If they want to put some restrictions on SEX, no matter how good their other policies are (Republicans) they don't get elected. It's all about SEX!

[@ceepersandenderdragonssvlo4812]

@MisterPersuation Are you saying that the Democrats have NO good policies? If that's the case, then I would say that in the current state of things politically, NOTHING could be further from the truth.

[@Jalcolm1]

If you leave out the differences, things seem the same. The sixties introduced massive amounts of drug taking, that is still with us. And active hostility to authority because of the war. In the past, wars created discipline and common cause. Nobody wanted to die in Vietnam. America cannot be repaired. Look it up. Superficial similarities do not create similar outcomes.

[@siriosstar4789]

there is something quite important that was omitted in terms of causation . there may have been a similarity in sexual behavior between my grand parents time and the sixties but the sixties were not necessarily a going backwards or a repeat of history but rather an effect of a radical shift in the subjectivity of the younger set , brought on by psychedelics . The sixties are too often described by external actions and lifestyle but it was really about a shift in the individual and collective consciousness of the people . when i say consciousness i do NOT mean the accumulation of external information that gets stored in our brains or containers of knowledge , but rather a shift or expansion in the container itself . When the container is expanded it gives us access to inherent knowledge that exists within that new level of consciousness . this prompts one to act within the moment rather than from the past . we're are grandparents tapped into this expanded state also and were that way naturally? Perhaps .

[@rockinmama007]

Roaring 20’s🎉

[@Dekoherence-ii8pw]

"Is she right?" Of course. All those films with Marilyn Monroe.

[@STho205]

The parallel is correct to a point but her conclusion is spurious at best. She outlines three "generations" youth of the 60s, their parents, youth of the 20s...and only those three to come to the conclusion that 50s adults were stange and the promiscuous, high consumer, social rebel was normal. To draw such a conclusion one would have to look at 10 or 20 generations and the main events of their youth. The counter culture leaders in the late 50s and mid to late 60s were all 20 or over, most well over 20, and were rherefore NOT boomers. "The Graduate" was a war baby and the promiscuous patents were all the conservative middle age folk from the 40s and 50s. People who were 20 in 1950 had been born in 1930, raised in poverty, shortage of consumer luxuries, were kids in WW2. They wanted a stable and prosperous PREDICTABLE life they didn't have as children. Many married with little planning during WW2 in whirlwind war romances. Most of the divorce in the 1960s, 70s were those marriages falling apart after Junior got to college. Therefore if they had kids in 1943 babies like Junior were adored by Mom who thought Dad might die any day...after he returned they had a lot of living to do all at once: Get an education Properly court each other Raise a kid(s) Have more Get a house All at once...in just a couple of years. Ten+ years of development jammed into two. The normal sense of generation is conservative practicality, but since the late 1700s in Europe and the US there has been alternating a wealthy childhood turned rebel with a deprived childhood turned conservative.

[@MJ-ru7lz]

This has been proven patently false

[@frankk.777]

What do you mean?

[@HugoTeerds]

No, it has not! Educate yourself, and not in religious institutions!

[@bbrraanniissllaavv]

I bet the "good" fellas at Tavistock had absolutely nothing to do with "counterculture" of the 60s.

[@wmfife1]

The thing that strikes me most is she seems to know an awful lot about my grandparents for someone who looks like she was born about when my mother passed away. But I do agree about my parents' attitudes, whose bedroom door was never shut from the time my younger brother was born. "...Just for starting families" my father was sternly and firmly told. From then on they lived like siblings. I saw and avoided.

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

This was filmed in 1989 as my description says and she definitely was from the younger portion of the generation she is talking about. David Hoffman filmmaker

[@9650ambrosius]

Your generation, 50's, 60's, or whatever is a funny generation actually: You're all like: "Yeah, we solved all the problems, you can come now, there's no barrier in sight..." That's funny, because if I wanna come, the only thing this generation is gonna do is judging me with their morals. So, yeah, you can come, it's up to every individual to decide whether or not it's gonna happen, everyone can do their own sexual revolution. Honestly, where do you think you come from? Who are your ancestors? Did your ancestors have children without sex? Did you ancestors' ancestors have children without sex? Do your children have children without sex? And what about your children's children? What else do you think there is to understand? Diseases? Don't you think morals are a disease? You're the generation that introduced all the morals that condemn our sexual behavior! Somehow on the whole timeline of the history of mankind you're the only generation that became so incredibly prideful it claimed to be the generation that was responsible for the sexual revolution! It's up to each individual to make their own sexual revolution. At most we can claim we made our own personal sexual revolution, not of other people.

[@joegee1000]

I wonder how baby boomers would have actually been affected by their grandparents toward adopting their "progressive" attitudes? and what percentage of the population were thinking and acting like progressives in those early years? I think it may have been coincidental. I think that the boomers of the 60s saw the creeping homogenization of the culture all around them that was absorbing the individual identity of people and directing all of their energy toward attaining the American Dream which was then dangling within the grasp of a large part of the population. Add to that the development of a counter cultural movement already started in the "Beats" or bohemians of the 50s, whose counter-cultural ideas were already being publicized in the movies and media, who recognized what the affect of the rush toward material acquisition was having on spontaneity and human freedom, together with the messages in the music of the 60s much of which was encouraging people to take mind expanding drugs - "Have you ever been experienced? I have," to "love the one you're with," and "Silver people on the shoreline, let us be Talkin' 'bout very free and easy..." it seems to me these things had a more profound influence on young people in that decade than the influence of grandparents.

[@psychoticbob]

I agree with her.

[@got2kittys]

The greater the repressed sexuality, the greater and more extreme the breakout.

[@brad9092]

She makes excuses for bad behavior.

[@gwendolenyoung4198]

what bad behaviour

[@carlmorgan8452]

Against GOD'S commandments

[@matthewatwood8641]

​@gwendolenyoung4198 destructive and self destructive sexual behavior for one. I'm guessing you're here to make some more excuses.

[@buddyroeginocchio9105]

No mention of the effects from recreational drugs or the push for abortion on demand. The degenerative results of these are with us still and getting worse, eventual it will do us in. At this point her thesis is very questionable without verifiable metrics.

[@lwrefrigeratedexpress5698]

It started with welfare and food stamps

[@tamarrajames3590]

I think it was beginning to accelerate in the 1920s with a natural rise in sexuality following WWI and the heavy losses from the Spanish flu. It was just more veiled, and less overt than what happened in the 60s and 70s. The 1950s were given a template that usually looked the other way, and had led to an increase of children offered for adoption. These young adults had experienced WWII in separation from each other. The men either fighting, or working in essential services, to provide food for the nation and the military. The women had been given jobs formerly done by me. Working in factories to produce the weapons of war, or making planes. Some women became secretaries when that field had previously been dominated by men…aside from executive Secretaries who had to be single women. At the end of WWII they wanted to put everyone back in their prewar boxes, but these women had felt a taste of independence…and they wanted more. Many companies were happy to hire them at a lower pay rate than returning soldiers. Then came the Korea War, the men left to fight again. Every time there has been War, there has been a rise in births…which brings us to the children born in the late 40s and the 50s. We were taught all the behaviours expected of us, and premarital sex was not one of them, but there was a significant rise in unwed Mothers, young Marriages, and in the number of babies given for adoption. A rise in divorce rates in these years as well. The pattern of War, and accelerated birth rates was holding true. Then we come to the 60s and 70s were different only because it was out in the open…and because of the big mix of birth control, Women’s Rights, greater education, Racial Integration, and political awareness among students. 😅 There was the Vietnam War, political assassinations, the Cold War, and there was a call for Peace and Love. Governments were scared of their kids, and they felt the need to get that lion in a cage, jailing more young people on drug charges arising from the “War on Drugs” which Nixon had declared. They finally gave up and killed that lion at Kent State, when a peacekeeping section of the State shot 4 American students on American soil. The students were nor armed or violent, but the peacekeeping force was…with American rifles. That day changed everything. The pattern of War, followed by an increased birth rate changed in the sexual revolution of the sixties and seventies, only because birth control was finally good enough to stop a great percentage of unexpected births. There was still a baby boom anyway. That boom happened because you still needed a prescription to get it, and in many states you couldn’t get that without Parental approval until you were 19, and emancipated, or 21, and reached your age of majority. Thank you David, for making me think.🖤🇨🇦

[@orah12185]

Reasonable explanation. Liked her liberated clean look: no makeup, clear skin, and cut but natural hair.

[@Murphator]

crazy right?

[@RIVALContentJammerz]

She deliberately leaves out key variables, so she can keep her message idealistic. You're worried about her hair.

[@lilo7741]

Why is she downplaying the role of Frankfurt school or isn’t she?

[@TheresaGraf]

The fifties had Elvis the Pelvis!