3.7 Sexual Liberation
In the eyes of eastern people, the sexual liberation of the west is both tempting and inconceivable. Most eastern people have heard about western people’s free, casual, and widespread sexuality. In fact, this issue is not easy for someone who just entered the US to understand since it’s hard to enter American life. Visitors can see X-rated movies and prostitutes on the streets of New York, or nudity and sex on TV. Bookstores and grocery stores display pornographic magazines like Playboy, Playgirl, and Penthouse. But this is only commercial sexual liberation. It’s not as easy to understand what a real, average American thinks about sex. What I analyzed was more theoretical than practical, because I did not go deep into the thoughts and lives of ordinary Americans. I remember reading a very factual description of sexual liberation in the book The Glory and the Dream.
One thin is for certain -- Today’s Westerners and Americans have different views on sex, even before the two World Wars. Western traditional concepts and ethics also emphasize women’s chastity and self-respect, and that women should have a strict code of conduct. The old European culture paid attention to this point, but today is totally different. The classical viewpoint changed so that sex cannot be defined as physical pleasure or as a symbol of deep integration between people (Elizabeth Janeway), because if we do this sexual activity is bound by social, religious, and moral values. The religious life in the European middle ages suppressed sexual desire and advocated that people should suppress their devotion to God. The Decameron depicts this kind of pleasure on people’s inner pursuits. European religious spirit fundamentally believes that sexual activities belong to the body but not the uplifting of the soul. Believing in God means we ought to uplift the soul and restrain human instinct. The traditional restriction of human desire in Western society comes from these deep-rooted ideals. After the Second World War, these ideas were never the same. Americans call this old concept of sex “Victorian attitudes towards sex.” The core of this standard is that sex should be limited to marriage, prostitution is a crime, pornography is moral degregation, and homosexuality is evil. Today these ideas have changed. Naturally all these ideas are not gone, because there are still people that want to keep this traditional concept.
In order to prove the change of concept, we can look at some data. According to the Ministry of Commerce, 15% of men and women live together outside of marriage and 600,000 children were born outside of marriage in 1980. There were about two million prostitutes in the 1980s, 600,000 of whom were girls 18 or younger. The porn industry made about $4 billion a year in the early 1980s. Homosexuality is also gaining greater and greater status in society. In some places, homosexuality is legal and homosexual couples can be formally married and live together. Homosexual often hold parades and fight for their legal rights. TV and movies are the best examples of this change, showing them under the covers. Naturally some of the best movies don’t feature this, such as Oscar-winning movies.
To understand this change, let’s take a look at Brone Leone and M. Teresa O’Neil’s Sexual Values: Opposing Viewpoints, which introduces different views on the changes in sexual concepts.
Is sex outside of marriage acceptable? Some people think that the primary function of seuxal life is to provide happiness, so the primary issue is not if someone is married or not, but if there is happiness. Another viewpoint is that a sex life must have love, and that love has a specified object while sex does not have a specified object, so the two cannot be equated. Others think about it from a scientific point of view, thinking that a sex life is a kind of relaxation, self-advancement, an experience, finding a partner for marriage, reducing jealousy, saving time, ending sexual discrimination, not supporting prostitution, etc. The other viewpoint is that a sex life requires adapting to each other, where personal communication is the key to a good sex life and guilt would be an obstacle. There are also different viewpoints on the government’s influence on sex. Some people think government influence infringes on personal life while others think that government management encourages healthy family development.
There is also a debate about the sex education of minors in the US. Some people think that sex education leads to sexual activities because children do not understand it. When clearly spoken about, everyone wants to try it which leads to teenage pregnancy. Another viewpoint is that sex education improves responsibility in sexual conduct. 10% of young women 15-19 years old are pregnant every year, so sex education should be taught. In fact, in such an environment of sexual liberation, this is a forced choice for teenagers. The third opinion is that parents have the right to vote to decide what kind of sex education their children receive.
Is homosexuality acceptable? Homosexuality being harmful to society is a conservative viewpoint. This viewpoint sees homosexuality as leading ot the decline of male principles. Female homosexuality may be harmless, but male homosexuality is harmful because there would be no family. A contrasting idea is that homosexuality has benefits for society, is not a disease, and brings people together. Some people suggest that homosexuality should be kept behind closed doors and not made public, while others advocate that homosexuals have the human right to live in public and be allowed to live in broad daylight.
Is pornography harmful? In 1968, President Nixon organized a special committee to investigate this issue. The committee’s eight members investigated pornographic magazines and films. Their report said pornography is harmless. They believed that this media can increase mutual understanding among adults, and that public opinion believes it is unacceptable to legislate against pornographic magazines. The majority of the committee came to this conclusion. The minority believed that ponographic publications are harmful to society, public morals, human value, family values, and culture, and that the pornography industry is opposed to human nature. These two groups sharply disagreed. One side was in favor of banning pornography as it leads to seuxal violence, depravity among youth, family breakdown, and other issues. The other believed that pornography can mentally comfort people and accords with a free society. Whether the pornography industry promotes violence was different between these two groups.
Is prostitution a crime? Chinese people generally understand that this is a controversial issue among Americans. Some think that prostitution is a crime, while others disagree.
These arguments are all related to sexual liberation. In the past, these problems were self-evident, but today this is not so clear. American culture is now a culture of tolerance and can exist in many ways. This is the strength and weakness of American culture -- I’m afraid that in America, the best and worst things exist together.
Sexual liberation has influenced the young generation's conception of sexuality. Most parents who have grown up now were in the high tide of the sexual liberations of the 1960s. People were generally open to sexual liberation. It’s normal for high school students to have a girlfriend or boyfriend. This is especially true for those outside of high school. Young people frequently think about things from a perspective of pleasure rather than starting a family. Parents are also used to these things and often guide their children how to lead a health sex life in order to prevent teenage pregnancy. One professor told me that her children didn’t need her guidance -- once she started speaking, they told her they already knew this three years ago. Sexual relations between college students is also more common, and is seen by Eastern people as too casual and difficult to accept. What is “Sexual liberation?” Take a look at the Feburary 1976 “A New Bill of Sexual Rights and Responsibilities.” According to this charter,
Physical pleasure has worth as a moral value. Traditional religious and social views have often condemned pleasures of the body as “sinful” or “wicked.” These attitudes are inhumane. They are destructive of human relationships. The findings of the behavioral sciences demonstrate that deprivation of physical pleasure, particularly during the formative periods of development, often results in family breakdown, child abuse, adolescent runaways, crime, violence, alcoholism, and other forms of dehumanizing behavior. We assert that physical pleasure within the context of meaningful human relationships is essential–both as a moral value and for its contribution to wholesome social relationships.
This is the essence of sexual liberation: From the fear of physical happiness to the pursuit of physical happiness.
The sexual liberation of Americans is probably at its peak, there is nothing left for future generations to discover. Pornographic magazines have exposed everything about men and women. Constant exploration becomes anatomy. Pornographic magazines often use large color photos to render the human body, including the details of genitals. In many states, these magazines are sold to the public. Pornographic movies are full of sex. In this environment, all kinds of debates will naturally be fierce and the biggest problem is the younger generation. In order to cope in this era of the pursuit of bodily desires schools have set up courses about these areas. There are countless childrens and parent’s manuals. These are available in every library. All young students take these classes. Such books will generally show young men and women’s physiological structure, puberty changes, and contraception in clear detail. This education is widespread.
Although we talk about sexual liberation, many people still have their own views on the issue of sex. A friend told me that Americans are not as casual about sexuality as is shown in movies. At least he was very serious about the topic. From politics to everyday life, having extramarital sex is a scandal. Gary Hart, who wanted to run for president in 1988, had to quit because of such stories. In areas such as schools, this can become a problem. Republic vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle also had problems with this, but luckily nothing happened. Therefore, the moral norms of maintaining a basic social order have not been entirely broken and are still working.
The question is why there was sexual liberation after the 1960s, but not before? Is there any logical connection between this and the development of material production? There should be. Freud said that the development of civilized life means suppressing human instinct. Marcuse called it “basic repression.” However, after the full development of material life, when people don’t need to exert so much energy to deal with nature and maintain physical existence, people’s instincts will be unrestrained. The development in the level of social material leads to a revolution of moral concept. In this process, the more important topic is to put forward a new topic of managing society: From managing material production to managing human behavior. This is probably a problem that any society will encounter when its materialism reaches a certain level.
Marcuse regarded sexual liberation as a method of modern people’s liberation from the oppression of  large capitalist machines and gave it political meaning. But so far, the political implications have been less obvious. We can confirm that the social significance of sexual liberation does not lie in more physical happiness for an individual, but in changing people’s concepts, which is an important factor in managing society.
Sexual liberation has created new problems. When sexual activities are strictly restricted, conflicts and contradictions caused by sexual repression often become an important aspect of family and societal management. Sexual liberation has eliminated the basis of these contradictions, and families have laid down many burdens. One burden has been exchanged for another. For social management, maintaining the old order and concepts is tricky -- the longer you try, the harder it is. Maintaining a new order and new ideas is also naturally a tricky task -- the shorter the time the more difficult it is. There seems to be a contradiction between the two, which is hard for people to choose. The problems of american society are also here. Sexual liberation is a model example. The new problems it raises have emerged now and will be more obvious in the future.