Interesting piece in the Sunday Times magazine

[Pimmsnlemonade]

Sorry, I haven't got a share token but I'm sure many of us are Times subscribers!:

www.thetimes.co.uk/magazine/the-sunday-times-magazine/the-sordid-sixties-the-sexual-revolutions-complex-legacy-r6k0rkxk0

Here’s a share token link:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-sordid-sixties-the-sexual-revolutions-complex-legacy-r6k0rkxk0?shareToken=eaa65298f761717efe5a1198aa813c49

Yes, Ive read before that sexual liberation in the sixties did not signal equality in any sense. I was born in the mid sixties, so my memories are more around growing up late sixties and seventies. There is no doubt to my mind that the sexual objectification of women and girls back then was far more pervasive. My parents were very conservative, but “family viewing” included Benny Hill and Carry on films. Sexual assault in the form on bum pinching or touching was common and viewed as a bit comic.
I’m concerned now that rates of sexual assault in schools and unis have rocketed. There are clearly some professions where harassment continues. I think the issue now is for young women to know that the fight is definitely not over, and to challenge harassment and sexist attitude wherever it occurs.

Interesting & agree with Nellie (same age).

I'm a similar age to Nellie, my parents were very liberal, but my mum was certainly outraged by Benny Hill etc etc. She was middle aged in the 1960s, and thought that sexual liberation was a clever misogynistic conspiracy to manipulate women, while pretending to liberate them. So that article chimed with me.

She also used to point out that Mary Whitehouse was vilified in the press, and constantly ridiculed, which she also felt was anti women. She didn't agree with MW, but felt she was cleverly used to discredit any counter ideas to sexual liberation being good for women.

(She was also outraged that my comic had a weekly story called "Nurse Susan and Doctor David", and used to point out that women could be doctors too!)

I was a war baby so spent my late teens and my twenties in the 1960s.
ColdFingered's mum was right.

So-called sexual liberation merely replaced the difficulty of saying yes to sex with the difficulty of saying no.

really interesting article, thanks for linking

things that leapt out at me were the 20 something women talking about the threat of violence they feel from men and

The death of rules, and a “live now, pay later” mindset, favoured the sense of male entitlement

with any social change, male entitlement will dilute and alter it, won't it?

So-called sexual liberation merely replaced the difficulty of saying yes to sex with the difficulty of saying no

I remember at uni a man trying to pressure a friend of mine into sex with the argument 'you slept with him, why won't you sleep with me?'

At least, back then, the difficulty in saying no wasn't generally to demands for anal or being choked. So there's that.

I do recall a time, in the late 70s-mid-80s where the conversation was about men's realising women could orgasm and even discussion about a woman's pleasure something men should consider and even desire.

"The Joy of Sex" did have some impact on the idea of mutuality and reciprocity.