Newspapers / Southeastern Community College Student … / May 1, 1970, edition 1 / Page 4
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the rams horn 1970 The Sexual Revolution By Tl JORDAN Feature Editor Revolution is a strong word, it inn plies abrupt and radical change. Those who clainn to study youth and morality say the sexual revolution began in the twenties. Perhaps, the trend was launched when T. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda went swimnning naked in the fountains of New York. Or, perhaps it began father back than that in the garden of Eden, (the press was undoubtedly more censored in Biblical times-so we don't really know the reason Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden.) At any rate you can bet that when Mom and Dad were in college: Boys and girls didn't live together in coed dorms. Mom didn't get the "pill" from the school docter every month. Girls that got pregnant couldn't get legal abortions. There weren't signs in the dorm proclaiming "Make love, not babies." Things have changed, right. According, to many of our peers .morality has taken a backseat to primitive sexual drives. Bad scene. Those roaring twenties are again the culprit. They began this downhill trend of moral decadence and decency. It was during this time when today's parents began to acknowledge the fact that they had bodies. It seems that before this time Victorian ism looked upon sex as ■ a dirty word and the human body was a mischievous machine whose natural desires had to be supressed; In other words, mass hypocracy; After all there were babies being born and no one believes that stork tale anymore. While attitudes and talk have been considerably liberalized, an AP survey reveals that actions of today's kids do not necessarily coincide with this talk. For example; The "pill" isn't in every girl's medicine cabinet. It is true it has lifted the bonds of an unwanted pregnancy. But this does not mean that young coeds go out and do it with every guy they date. Most psychiatrists and girls agree that the "pill" isn't stamping out virginity and promiscuity isn't spreading like wildfire. Most girls who use contreceptives are already sexually experienced. Abortion laws are still very unfair in our country. According to a "Reader's Digest" article many girls are dying and being ruined for life by quacks. Nevertheless, abortion rates have increased significantly for unmarried girls. But the liberalization of abortion laws in several states have shown that more married women, rather than single girls, are coming in larger numbers for hospital abortions. * I WMMMM ■ "love, like life, escapes the rigid bonds of definition For as many kids that live together unmarried there are still some who look upon sleeping together as a state existing only for married couples. For as many guys that consider themselves real studs there are just as many who hesitate to become sexually involved with a girl. Believe it or not there are virgins alive and walking around on campuses all over America. Eight young coeds at George Washington turned out to be just as pure and chaste as the Virgin Mary. The girls involved were astonished at themselves. They too were under the assumption that everyon was doing it. Again a case of a sophisticated attitude that revealed very moral conduct. Statistics indicate that premarital sex has varied only a few percentage points since the Kinsey Survey in the fifties. "The proportion of young people that are copulating is the same as it was 50 years ago." "The proportion of young people that are copulating is the same as it was 50 years ago." says Dr. Ira Reiss of the University of Minnesota, a leading authority on premarital sex. "It's just about half." (someone is lying on those Questionaires) Kinsey stated that 27% of females by age 21 had had premarital sex relations. Drs. William Simon and John Gagnon stated that according to a survey of 1200 college students in 1967 approximately one-third of college girls were no longer virgins by their senior year. It is a measurable increase, but certainly not as high as it could be." says Dr. Simon. Most kids don't have a sexual experience for the erotic pleasure it gives, but out of love. It is hard to be in love with someone and not make love to them. Sexual values have not changed for the average young American. Traditional values impressed upon them by Society aren't so easily shaken off. Says Dr. Simon, "... and in the heartland of America, the most traditional views of sexual behavior haven't changed at all. The scene has changed: Things are being sophisticated. There are pressures today that our parents did not conceive. There is even sophisticated warfare. And if killing can be done in a sophisticated manner, the act to produce more humans to build more war machines to kill other humans has certainly been sophisticated. Sex is still very much an individual thing. Not everyone has been affected by this liberalization of sex. Students admit that no matter what an individual believes there are certain pressures to hold liberal views as far as everyone is concerned. But is is still the individual heart that decides the course one takes and according to Faulkner "it is the individual who accomplishes." The sexual revolution is going to be a gradual transition from old world concepts to the present day liberal ideas. Patterns of sexual behavior are rooted deep within an individual. Just because one is suddenly thrust into a time of so-called free love era it does not justify promiscuity and immoral behavior. But then one is confronted with the question, "Who am I to decide for another individual their code of morality. Times change and one can either change with them or be left behind. Our parents concept of morality is entirely different from our concept of morality. Decency and morality ai"® easily defineable in terms of words. But life is experience. The termanology of Webster may be fine for English papers and textbooks. But life escapes the rigid bonds of definition. It refuses to be qualified in strict terms.
Southeastern Community College Student Newspaper
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May 1, 1970, edition 1
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