The counterculture movement of the ’60s was a groundbreaking moment when the hippies relentlessly challenged traditional and morally conservative views on sexuality. They were on to something back then, and it’s important to look at the changes they fought for with an unbiased perspective.

An article on the PBS website divulged on what took place during that time.

“Despite the social conservatives’ agenda, as the decade progressed, societal emphases on virginity and marriage were slowly replaced by a celebration of single life and sexual exploration.” The concept of sexual exploration stemmed from the feminist movement’s struggle for equality in sexuality. Women wanted to have the same freedom as men to express their sexuality openly without any connotations of promiscuity.

Additionally, the advent of the birth control pill in the early ‘60s further fueled the revolution. Women now had control of what happened before, during and after sex. The idea of women enjoying and exploring sex made social conservatives’ blood boil.

The younger generation of the 1960s questioned authority and the values society placed on sexuality. The logic of the feminist and hippie movements was more than straightforward, it gave other generations a different way to define and explore their sexuality.

But nowadays, young women and men are caught in a perplexing struggle regarding how to talk about and express their sexuality. We either do it in private and shut up, or express how much we enjoy it in a social context and get attached to labels like slut, player and pervert.

Furthermore, television constantly tells us sex is the norm, aggressively showing women in submissive roles and men in dominant ones. The confusion comes from daily overexposure to overt sexuality, combined with the inability to talk about sex openly and honestly in social contexts due to the stigma.

The sexual revolution of the 1960s gives us a chance to assess our current issues with the overly conceptualized and scorned notion of having sex and talking about it. Young people should feel empowered rather than stigmatized by their sexual exploration, especially in social contexts. While it’s important to know which boundaries to observe when talking about and exploring sexuality, it’s also good to know when to cross them and laugh.