What new attitudes towards sexual activity and drugs were promoted by the counterculture?
1 Answer
The rejected the conventional attitudes of the time and set out to embrace new attitudes towards sexual activity and drugs. The answer contains just examples of what is a huge topic.
Explanation:
From the mid to late 1950's to the late 60's and early 70's the counter culture grew in reaction to the stifling conformity of post war conventionalism in the USA and Western Europe.
In terms of sexual activity, Alfred Kinsey's studies in the late 40's and early 50's were significant in starting to change attitudes towards sexuality, and in particular female sexual activity.
Kerouac's On The Road, the poems of Allen Ginsberg and the writings of Timothy Leary " turn tune in drop out", are further examples of changing attitudes towards the culture of the day. Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and his book One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest are other examples.
The growth of feminism from Freidan's liberal feminism expressed in The Feminine Mystique, the establishment and growth of NOW, the rise of radical feminists such as Shulamith Firestone and Germaine Greer are further examples of how women challenged the traditional image of domestic bliss in a suburban marriage.
The use of drugs also featured in popular culture, The 1960's is a decade where drugs such as LSD and Mandrax were widely used by famous bands and musicians and reflected in their work. Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles and Their Satanic Majesties Request by the Rolling Stones are two of the most famous examples.
Moreover different areas of the counter culture frequently overlapped. Ginsberg appears behind Dylan in his video for Subterranean Homesick Blues. The Who refer to Timothy Leary in The Seeker and of course drug abuse took its toll. Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin are some of the most well known victims.
The end of the 60's can be seen as the start of the end of the counter culture. Amongst the deaths of these celebrities were other events which marked its demise. The Manson murders where members of Charles Manson's gang including teenage girls from what were seen as stable homes, brutally murdered amongst others Sharon Tate, wife of Roman Polanski, and the murder of a black youth at Altamont by the Hell's Angels when a Stones concert went badly wrong are two famous examples.
It is not the case that it ended there. Radical feminism went from strength to strength in the 70's, however by the end of that decade there was a conservative reaction reflected in the coming to power of leaders such as Reagan and Thatcher. One only needs to look at the issue of abortion in the USA today to see how it has swung the other way.
