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Abigail G. Horner
Dr. Maxfield
English 111
25 November, 2015
The Cultural Shift of the American Mindset Regarding Premarital Sexual Behavior in the mid
Twentieth Century, and the Major Causes Thereof
It is apparent that todays American teenagers and young adults do not live in a culture
equivalent to that of generations past. One undeniable difference lies in the perspective from
which generations view premarital sexual behavior, particularly in adolescents and young adults.
Throughout the Western world there are many differing views and cultural teachings regarding
sexual activity among youth, which have produced differing numbers of pregnancies, births,
abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases. Advocates for Youth, an organization whose focus
is to benefit youth by providing information and resources about sexual health, compiled recent
statistics concerning the outcomes of youth sexual behavior across the countries of France,
Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. Of the four countries compared, young people
in the United States ranked highest in each category, in some displaying three times as many
cases (Feijoo, Ammie).
The youth of the United States seem to be currently quite free with their sexual
expression. Statistics suggest, however, that this has not always been the case. U.S. Public Health
Reports say that the median age of premarital sexual intercourse has dropped from 20.4 years age
for those who turned 15 between the years of 1954-63 to 17.6 years of age for those who turned

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15 between the years of 1994-2003 (Finer, Lawrence B.). Although the median age differs by
only 2.8 years, this is the difference between a teenager in high school and a young adult. What
has caused this difference? This difference is not merely a physical shift; the difference has taken
place as a result of a cultural perspective shift. Throughout the last century there have been
numerous movements and developments that have structured and restructured Americans views
on sexual behavior, many of which took place in the 1950s and 1960s. Many opinions are held
about the happenings that occurred during these decades, yet there are many misconceptions due
to ignorance or wishful thinking. The focus of this article will be to cover broadly the sexual
advancements in each prospective time period, and the effect that each had on popular thought
toward premarital sexual activity.
In order to examine the differences that emerged over the course of time, there must be a
baseline understanding of the popular thought processes in the time period with which we start.
This is the decade of the 1950s. The 1950s are oft looked back on and viewed as the good old
days, when traditional families were the norm. Children were raised with a good sense of
moral right and wrong, divorces were few, and everyone followed the standard of correct
behavior. This view, though partially correct, is not necessarily as cut and dry as one might think.
This generation of families was not necessarily traditional, in the sense of being the same as it
always had been. In fact, the values of the generation of families in this decade were quite
unusual when compared to those in the decades that bracketed it. Elaine Tyler May, in her
interview used in the PBS television series, Making Sense of the Sixties, said that the 50s,
rather than being the norm, were actually an anomaly:
There really have been only two times in the last century that that particular
sexual behavior increased dramatically. One time was the early 20th century. The

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second time was in the 60s. You have the grandchildren behaving, in a lot of
ways, like their grandparents. So somehow the generation in between is what is
really strange. Somehow in our popular consciousness we have dubbed them the
normal the traditional there is nothing traditional about them. They were
very bizarre and unusual by historical standards. (May, Elaine Tyler)
Another section of Making Sense of the Sixties titled A time of Innocence proposed that
Universities treated even young adults in college like children. (Hoffman, David) They were
expected to be treated as upright citizens, and were expected to conform to an unwritten list of
rules for acceptable social behavior. There were high standards for young people in the 1950s,
which were expected by adult influences, such as parents and teachers, as well as ones peers.
These ranged from appropriate styles of dress, to ways of dancing, ways of driving, even the
correct way to hold a cigarette (Hoffman, David). While on the surface it may have seemed that
the young people of this era were content with fitting the mold, there was a growing sense of
dissatisfaction among many. There was a discontinuity between the way things were expected to
be, and the reality of desire amongst the youth culture. Alan Petigny, historian at the University
of Florida, writes that the Silent Sexual Revolution Began In 1940s and 50s.
Between 1940 and 1960, the frequency of single motherhood among white
women increased from 3.6 to 9.2 newborns per 1,000 unmarried white women of
childbearing age, Petigny said. Among all women, single motherhood rose from
7.1 to 21.6 newborns per 1,000 unwed women, he said. Between the beginning
of World War II in 1941 and the inaugural issue of Playboy in 1953, the overall
rate of single motherhood more than doubled, he said. The silent generation

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may have been silent about what they were doing, but they werent all that
complacent. (Petigny, Alan)
Although the dawning of the 1960s did not immediately equate to a culture shift, few
could have predicted the extent of the far reaching effects of the free love movement soon to
arrive on the scene. Many of the young adults, who grew up feeling oppressed by this society,
when released from their childhood restraints into the self-governing role of adulthood, took
advantage of their newfound freedoms. Some joined forces with other like-minded individuals,
while some explored on their own, but each had the inner desire to break free from their past,
often by whatever means necessary. David Hoffman, producer of Making Sense of The Sixties,
and child of the sixties, said The thing youre missing is that the sixties was not an action. It
was a reaction This didnt just come out of nothing by a bunch of crazy kids This was a
reaction to a repressive era so subtle, that you couldnt find it written anywhere. (Hoffman,
David)
It is disagreed upon exactly what size group of this young generation chose to rebel
against the old and forge a new path, because each person bought into the rebellious ideology to
a different extent. Nevertheless, it is essentially undisputed that the young men and women who
did impacted their generation to the point that it was unrecognizable as what it once was. The
main themes that permeated this new ideology were promoted as free love and freedom. The
concept of free love referred to a sense of brotherly love by which people were to act peacefully
toward one another, withhold anger and disagreement, sacrifice everything for the good of the
group, and love without boundaries. Jobs and college educations were forsaken, with young
people choosing to drop out of all that was traditional, and instead live a life where every man
depended on the other. Money was considered evil, so people tried to live as inexpensively as

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possible. Families opened their homes to provide shelter to the nomad-esque hippies. It wasnt
uncommon for one to lodge in a house for a week or more.
Free love also tied in with the concept of freedom. Freedom was seen as the lack of
bondage to societal expectations, providing a free pass to act in whichever ways one felt or
desired. It was freedom to behave however one wished, with whomever one wanted, with
supposedly no consequences. Free love meant everyone shared what they had, and freedom
meant that sexual desire could be freely expressed one with another. Nothing was off limits. This
desire led to groups of people deserting common society, and forming communal societies. In
these societies, an intentional disregard for socially accepted relational boundaries was apparent,
which was displayed most pointedly in the fact that entire camps chose to forgo clothing entirely,
and instead go about their daily activities in the nude. Family structures that had been in place for
centuries were thrown to the wind, now replaced by unmarried women bearing children by many
different men.
The rebellion of the 1960s is thought to be epitomized by the three day music festival
held in Bethel, New York, Woodstock. Attended by some 500,000 people, this rock concert was
characterized by nudity and extensive drug use, all in the name of freedom (Woodstock). Eric
Tarquinio writes in his article How did the Woodstock Festival of 1969 Epitomize the
counterculture of 1960s America? about the sexual chaos that exploded during this event. He
says According to the counterculture, by freeing oneself from socially constructed sexual
guidelines, one is sexually liberated as a result. (Tarquinio, Eric)
The main impact that these hippies had on the culture at large was two-fold; first, it
twisted the nature of the youth cultures sexual desire, and secondly there was a familiarizing of

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that desire, making it commonplace. Almost every adult human being has been innately gifted
with a sexual desire, but this group of rebels took the accepted expression of this desire
(monogamous sex within the confines of the marriage relationship) and replaced it with this
unheard of way of life. Sexual promiscuity was not seen as something to be looked upon with
shame, but rather an accepted lifestyle choice. Granted, the members of society at large,
especially the parents and grandparents of the day, did not release their ways of thinking and
immediately grasp ahold of this new ideology. The philosophy was, however, due to the
tremendous numbers of people who accepted and lived it, integrated into the modern popular
thought of the day, causing people to become familiarized with it. It is not that the philosophy
displaced the traditional family structure, rather that it was so frequently lived that it became
more commonplace. It intermingled with the popular thought of the day, simultaneously
popularizing a new way of life and introducing a sense (for some) of discontent and
disassociation with that which was traditional.
The philosophy of free sexual expression, though tempered in its participants by the
wisdom that comes with age, has indelibly made its mark on the popular culture of its day, and
every generation which has succeeded it. It has effectively displaced not only the excessively
restrictive behavioral rules of its day, but also truths considered to be foundational to the
structure of the society at large, such as gender roles, family structure, and appropriate
boundaries regarding sexual expression. Ultimately, these happenings propelled a transformation
of mores now so ingrained in the popular thought of United States citizens that they are unaware
of this perspective from which they come. Is this a positive advancement? Dr. Peter Kreeft,
Professor at Boston College, author, and apologist, does not believe so. When interviewed by
Peter Herbeck on The Choices We Face Television show, he said You cant have freedom

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without truth because freedom is positive, not just negative Freedom is not just anything
goes and nothing counts. Freedom is the freedom to become the happy, whole person that we
could be, and are meant to be. (Kreeft, Peter). The liberty to act without restraint and
unashamedly loose, according to Kreeft, is not the essence of freedom at all.
Regardless of ones opinion on the positive and negative aspects of the happenings of the
1950s and 1960s, it can be observed that the behavior, expectations, and attitudes of the youth of
the generations succeeding that of the 1960s have been influenced immensely by them. The
cultural shift that took place between the 1950s and 1960s has changed the structure of the youth
culture of the United States beyond what could have been foretold, and the wheels that were put
in motion during this time are unlikely to slow any time soon.

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Works cited
Finer, Lawrence B. Trends in Premarital Sex in the United States, 19542003. Public Health
Reports 122.1 (2007): 7378. Print.
Feijoo, Ammie. "Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the US." Advocates for Youth.
Advocates for Youth, 2001. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
Hoffman, David. "The 1960s - A Reaction To The 50s." Youtube. N.p., 28 Nov. 2015. Web. 7
Dec. 2015.
Hoffman, David. "The Early 60s, A Time Of "Innocence"" Youtube. PBS, 17 Dec. 2009. Web. 7
Dec. 2015.
Kreeft, Peter. "On Location With Dr. Kreeft: Truth and the Sexual Revolution." Youtube.
Renewal Ministries, 31 Dec. 2014. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
May, Elaine Tyler. "Where Did The 60s Sexual Revolution Come From." Youtube. PBS, 3 Dec.
2014. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
Petigny, Alan. "E X Plore 7 Silent Sexual Revolution Began In 1940s and 50s." University of
Florida, n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
Tarquinio, Eric. "How Did the Woodstock Festival of 1969 Epitomize the Counterculture of
1960s America?" Academia.edu. N.p., 2 Apr. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
Woodstock. Dir. Michael Wadleigh. 1970.