The Present Sexual Revolution

[Hipshot1554]

This subject has no doubt been addressed on lit before, but I wanted to put it forward again.

I came into my sexual awareness long before the internet was here. People didn't have access to much real information about the sex practices of others. The sex education in schools, if there was any, was more about what NOT to do than anything else.

Young adults, even married ones, fumbled around, still not sure if their curiosity about doing other things besides missionary position sex would be accepted by their partner. There were probably some couples that were ahead of the times, but I doubt that was the norm.

People talk about the sexual revolution of the late 60s. I was there, and compared to today it was like a fart in a whirlwind. Magazine articles and polls were showing that women really did enjoy sex, and were having sex, in and out of marriage. Some of the guilt was gone, but there was no real open communication about what was normal. Fetishes and sex acts, other than "man on top" were only addressed in medical articles, or maybe "Hustler" magazine.

Today, thanks to the internet, we have direct access to everything. We have these open forums where we can discuss any topic we wish. I have gained so much insight in these last 15 or so years.

The main thing I love about lit is the open exchange of opinion. That people like different things, and that it's okay to be different.


I'd like to throw this topic open to both segments of the "lit"ers. Those of us that came before, and those after the information age.

What say you?

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Hi

My father was a psychologist who corresponded with people like Jung and Otto Rank (I can still recall Rank's long long handwritten letters to my dad, although my sister has them and I haven't spoken to her for years and years).

I have a pretty prodigious and extremely reliable memory with some unusual aspects to it. I cannot tell you or explain to myself even, somehow at a tiny age 'understanding' the names and the meanings of the subjects being discussed, but having hidden behind lounge sofas until late at night listening in to adult conversations between people who were even then fairly public figures - he wasn't personally physically there but I have listened in to a phone call from Walt Disney, for example...

Insight? From the modern information world?

Yes I agree but while I agree much is accessible today on a wider basis to people, it simply isn't true at all that the 'contemporary' let's say, has a greater knowledge or insight into sex matters. That is just plain so far away from the truth as to be a sick joke. I agree it is AN IMPRESSION that one can easily have - and I have thought it myself before having to check myself with my own knowledge that gets pushed into the background by current events and propaganda, I would even say.

Just see if you can get your hands onto some art works by the 1920's/30's underground artist Feodor Rojankovski, also known as just 'Rojan.'

The depth and the richness of sexual knowledge and awareness in the hands of a few within society back even in the Edwardian era and earlier, is much much greater than anything around today. And I do mean ANYTHING.

People today are conceited about what they think they 'know.' Yes there is a lot of material around more easily accessible to a wider number of people. No it is not by any means more advanced at all.

A lot of BDSM is re-hashing even of fairly mindless early Crowley stuff, some Richard Burton oriental and translated material, and similar writers that people have forgotten about nowadays but just borrow from freely or unwittingly. Bisexual or lesbian philosophy now is nowhere near as intricate and ornate as what the ancient Greek and Greek-influenced Romance (UK) era writers discussed.

Byzantine literature on sex is largely lost to the world now, Russian Tsarina royal court expertise seldom discussed knowledgeably, Pomeranian sexual style unknown, Bohemian manners unknown or parodied, German Cabaret fictionalised and turned into cartoonish images, and the rich females' Salon culture of Paris a hundred and fifty years ago totally unremembered.

Today, rather than a Revolution, there is sexual exhaustion from too much of the same thing re-boiled over and over with rising tones of hysteria about how 'out there' or 'outrageous' or 'adventurous' it all is. But not. Not really.

 

[Hipshot1554]

I was thinking more along the lines of people sharing thoughts and ideas openly. How we feel about ourselves after sharing ideas and experiences with others. I was merely commenting on the open exchanges of others, and how it affects us. I don't know how many times I've read posts that say " I thought I was weird til I found this place". Me included. That there are many out there that share our likes. Maybe even get to meet some of them.

 

[jacktar48]

I'm not sure there is any current Sexual Revolution. Or that there ever was one.

People have been doing it pretty much the same way for a really long time. Obviously. None of us would have been here if they hadn't.

The Hindus thought sexual variety important enough to put instructions in a religious text well over 2000 years ago.

I suspect that anything we think we have "discovered" was something Grandma knew about long ago. She just didn't talk about it.

 

[Hipshot1554]

I suspect that anything we think we have "discovered" was something Grandma knew about long ago. She just didn't talk about it.[/QUOTE]

Exactly my point! Now we talk about it and THAT has changed things.

Not long ago gays were outcasts, now they are a political force.

Not many years ago unwed mothers were considered tramps. Now no one thinks twice about it.

I know that people have always had sex. That isn't the point.

Gravity has always been here too, but there was a time when talking about it could get you put to death.

Literotica and sites like it have changed things. That's my point.

 

[jacktar48]

I suspect that anything we think we have "discovered" was something Grandma knew about long ago. She just didn't talk about it.

Exactly my point! Now we talk about it and THAT has changed things.

Not long ago gays were outcasts, now they are a political force.

Not many years ago unwed mothers were considered tramps. Now no one thinks twice about it.

I know that people have always had sex. That isn't the point.

Gravity has always been here too, but there was a time when talking about it could get you put to death.

Literotica and sites like it have changed things. That's my point.[/QUOTE]

I am skeptical about cause and effect, but either way, I agree with you that the transparency is good, and maybe something we won't give up because some skanky old queen doesn't like being reminded about sex.