Julie Tinker
OUR BODIES, OUR SHELVES
The Sexual Revolution, 1963–1972
The sexual revolution, which emerged in the late 1960s with the work of writers and activists like Gloria Steinem, Kate Millet, and Betty Friedan, sought to change attitudes about not just sexual conduct, but the role of privacy, personal choice, and gender in modern society. Because this period turned the spotlight on new sexual experiences and sexual tensions — including interracial sex, sex without marriage or sex with someone of the same gender — it gave voice to the subtleties of race, class, and homosexuality that other movements had found difficult to articulate. It was a time in which women got away from their traditional roles as vessels for childbirth, chained to the stove, and instead carved out a new identity of dignity, freedom, and satisfaction.
