Adult Content:

We have nothing against any man learning more ways to satisfy a woman, but have you ever wondered why the majority of articles focus on men gaining more insight to the woman's libido?

While it may seem the obvious answer is because women require more sexual stimulation to reach an orgasm than men, by taking a short journey through recent history, it's clear there are other reasons why society still focuses more on women's sexuality than on men's.

Let's start by looking at the man's role of traditionally being the aggressor in a relationship.

Throughout history it's been the man's 'duty' to not only pursue the female, but to continue to keep her satisfied once he has hit her over the head with his club and dragged her back to his cave by the hair. It was just a normal expectation that the boy would be the one picking a girl up for the date. He was expected to buy candy and flowers to present to her. He was expected to buy her dinner. And he was expected to try and get to 'first base' with her. The girl's job was to be coy and reject his advances if they were too aggressive, remaining 'virginal' and distant to keep him wanting more, and thus, coming back for more. At least, that's how it was suppose to go according to 'Donna Reed', 'Father Knows Best', and the other TV shows that focused on life in the '50s, or at least, how life was suppose to be.

Boys and men knew that if they didn't make an effort to romance and continue to pursue the female of their desire, another male would come along and compete for her affections. This scenario was embedded into our subconscious. Girls were taught to seduce men in an subtle manner, gaining his attention while remaining distant. She was to be attainable at some point, but only after he proved his worth to her. TV taught us this was how it was done, our parents taught it to us, and at one time even public schools taught us these traditional male and female courtship rites. Once the man proved his worth, he would eventually ask for the woman's hand in marriage, since it was his job to do so as the aggressor.

While real life events may may not have always played out exactly that way, and probably seldom did, it was inevitable that we would carry these ideals of the male and female roles into the bedroom, even if it was on a subconscious level, thus creating a culture where it was the male's duty to continue to peruse the female, and continue to learn the best ways to keep her satisfied. If a man failed to continue pursuing his mate by providing for her, offering her tokens of his affection, and satisfying her wants and needs, there was the possibility another male would try to steal her away.

This created a need for information for both young men and young women to properly carry out their roles in life, and a need to know how to keep a woman satisfied beyond supporting her. Although these ideas are somewhat antiquated now, the woman's desire to be sexually fulfilled still exists. While we won't deal any farther with traditional roles of the male and female, or how the male ego comes into play here, suffice it to say the man's desire to be able to fill the woman's needs still exist today.

Other reasons for the majority of articles on sexual satisfaction being directed toward the female was the fact there was a tradition started in the mid 1960s that many people aren't aware of today. Starting in 1957 the team of William Masters and Virginia E. Johnson pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions.

In the initial phase of their studies, from 1957 until 1965, they recorded some of the first laboratory data on the anatomy and physiology of human sexual response. Their findings, particularly on the nature of female sexual arousal and orgasm dispelled many long standing misconceptions about female sexuality, and in 1966, the now famous team of Masters and Johnson published the book Human Sexual Response. The book was a best seller, and it not only helped to change our perception of the female from a sexual viewpoint, it brought on the desire for more information. Their book Human Sexual Inadequacy published in 1970 was also a best seller, and both books were translated into more than thirty languages. While both of these books played a major role in understanding female sexuality, it's necessary to look at some of the events that occurred before and during this time that also helped to bring the subject of women's sexuality to the forefront.

Stepping back into the 1950s:

Two books on human sexual behavior called Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female were published in 1948 and 1953 respectively, by Dr. Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy and others. These books are known a the Kinsey Reports, and while there is still much controversy over the validity of the information in these books due to the methods used to gather their facts, they did start to open a door toward human sexuality.

Also in 1953, a 27 year old man pushed the boundaries beyond the scantily clad 'Pin Up' girls that appeared on calendars and published a magazine with erotic photographs of women. The first issue featured film star Marilyn Monroe as the centerfold, and the magazine was a hit. If you haven't guessed already, his name was Hugh Hefner and the magazine was Playboy.

So why didn't things change dramatically in the '50s instead of the '60s? To some extent change did start taking place, but the '50s were fundamentally a time of conformity. Although immediately popular, Playboy magazine was more often hidden by men in places where their wives or girlfriends wouldn't find it. The gay lifestyle was not something society was willing to embrace in the fifties, and the Kinsey Reports astounded the general public. It was immediately controversial and sensational, causing both shock and outrage, both because they challenged conventional beliefs about sexuality and because they discussed subjects that had previously been taboo.

Probably the most widely cited part of the Kinsey Reports, and the most controversial of the time, was their claim that 10% of the population was gay. As far as society was concerned in the fifties, this behavior was unacceptable, and so were the books making such outrageous claims.

Social turmoil in the 1960s:

It wasn't until the mid '60s that things began to change. The 60s were a decade of  social turmoil. President Lyndon Johnson had dispatched a large number of troops to fight in Vietnam beginning in 1965, and it didn't take long before people started protesting America's involvement in the war. The hippie movement had ushered in the 'free love' mentality of having sex for pleasure, and out of wedlock among teens and young adults, and the feminist movement (also known as the Women's Movement, Women's Liberation, or Women's Lib for short), began introducing then radical ideas about equality for the sexes.

Although the feminist movement actually started before the 18th century, by the mid '60s television sets were common in most homes. This gave people instant access to events as they were happening, so more women were immediately informed of their 'sisters' taking a stand. But it was some of the things the women's lib movement was taking a stand for that caused so much controversy and eventually erupted into the 'sexual revolution'.

Contraception and birth control were almost universally restricted until the 1960s, but in 1960 the birth control pill was developed, and one of the main goals of the women's lib movement was gaining the right to have unrestricted access to 'The Pill'. Some people feared this would promote promiscuity among women, and to compound the issue, many feminists at the time also fought to change perceptions of female sexual behavior. Since it was often considered more acceptable for men to have multiple sexual partners, many feminists encouraged women into sexual liberation and having sex for pleasure with multiple partners. While some people embraced this idea, many more were outraged, especially families with teen and pre-teen daughters. They saw this as an assault on the traditional roles men and women had in the home, and a personal attack against both their moral and social values. To the still conservative society of the early '60s, many people viewed the women's lib movement as nothing more than an attempt to promote illicit behavior in young women, increase promiscuity, and many feared the movement supported prostitution. In a time when the majority of society's values still hinged on religious and moral standards, the radical ideas being promoted by the women's movement was not welcomed with open arms, and the women's libbers had a fight on their hands.

Although it was still legal to ban books in the United States in the early '60s, and common practice to ban any book that contained sexual content, in 1966 a U.S. Supreme court ruling made it illegal to ban books in the United States about sex as long as they were non-fiction [1]. By the late '60s and early '70s, with the fear of legal action no longer hanging over their heads, nonfiction works about sex and sexuality started to appear, and more information than ever was available about female sexuality. Veiled in the protective non-fiction category, articles for women about sexual pleasures and how to get their man to satisfy them in bed started to become popular. Books on sex and women's sexuality began to appear on the shelves of the bookstores, articles in women's magazine began discussing the female orgasm, and men's magazines like Playboy and Penthouse featured advise columns that taught men how to satisfy a woman sexually.

In a country already divided over the war in Vietnam and the hippie movement, issues being raised by the women's movement just added fuel to an already raging fire. It's hard to say for sure, but it's easy to speculate that the other issues the country was facing at the time may have actually helped the women's movement. Many of the issues the country was facing were deemed more important than the equal rights issue by some, and with so much attention being focused elsewhere, many people simply ignored the demands the women's movement was making, assuming they would eventually give up and the government could deal with more important matters. Whether that's actually the case or not, the timing of the women's movement to reduce resistance couldn't have been better.

The '60s were without a doubt a turning point in history when it comes to women's liberation. The latter part of the '60s could lay claim some of the most important events affecting the future exploration, and some claim exploitation of women's sexuality. Not only could the '60s lay claim to the sexual revolution and the Equal Rights Amendment, it could also be said that the '60s were the years when some of the most erotic swimwear, or lack of it, became popular. In 1946 Paris, engineer Louis Reard unveiled a swimsuit he names the Bikini. Two piece suits weren't new though. As part of wartime rationing, the U.S. Government, in 1943, ordered a 10 percent reduction in the fabric used in woman's swimwear. Off went the skirt panel, and out came the bare midriff. At beaches across the country, men paid special attention to women doing their patriotic duty. But Reard pushed the envelope. He shrunk his suit down to 30 inches of fabric - basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected by string - and put the navel on center stage. Reard's "bikini" was so small that no Parisian models at the time would wear it on the runway. He hired Micheline Bernardini, who had no qualms about strolling around in a bikini, seeing as her day job was a nude dancer at the Casino de Paris.

The world took notice.

The bikini was banned in the Catholic countries of Spain, Portugal, and Italy, and in the U.S., decency leagues pressured Hollywood to keep it out of the movies. One writer said it's a "two piece bathing which reveals everything about a girl except for her mothers maiden name." Reard's firm did it's part to fan the fantasies by proclaiming that a two piece wasn't a bikini "unless it could pulled through a wedding ring." In 1957 a bikini clad Brigitte Bardot frolicked in "And God Created Woman" and did wonders for business, but not in modest America. Here it remained an invitation to scandal. As recently as 1957, Modern Girl magazine sniffed, "It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing.

It wasn't until 1963 when Annette Funicello appeared with singer Frankie Avalon in "Beach Party" that the bikini clad ex-mouseketeer would bring mass popularity to the revealing swimwear. The following year saw even more widespread popularity in the bikini when the Beach Party Series included the releases of Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, and Pajama Party, and 1964 also saw the first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, with Babette March gracing the cover wearing a two piece bikini. The Beach Party series continued with Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini in '65, and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini in '66. Also in 1966, the bikini grew fur in the movie "One Million Years B.C.," which catapulted statuesque cave girl Raquel Welch to stardom, and further increased the popularity of the bikini.

It wasn't long after the stir the bikini had made in America that society was up in arms again. In 1969, Bob Guccione's UK magazine 'Penthouse' became available for the first time in the United States, with Evelyn Treacher being the first Penthouse Pet. If it could be said that Playboy magazine had created interest in the men's magazine industry, then it's safe to say that Penthouse blew the lid off of it.  While there were other magazines available that were more risque than Playboy, they weren't sold openly like Playboy was. What made Penthouse magazine's contribution to the sexual revolution so important was that it hit the newsstands with pictorials that offered more sexually explicit content than was commonly seen in most men's magazines of the era, and it was the first men's magazine to show female pubic hair and full frontal nudity. Playboy magazine wouldn't have a full frontal nude centerfold until the layout featuring Liv Lindeland in January of 1971.

It's easy to see that the '60s were anything but boring, and amidst such turmoil, change was inevitable.

Sex through the '70s, '80s, and '90s

When the '70s rolled around, America saw itself facing a new culture, and a new future that included a dramatic change in lifestyle from a mere 20 years earlier. The country wasn't shocked as easily as it had been in the '50s, and women exploring and expressing their sexuality was more commonplace. While the '70s couldn't lay claim to major events that had occurred in the '60s, there were things that happened in the '70s that people in the '60s wouldn't have even dreamt about. The decade started out on a roll and it didn't slow down.

One of the reasons for so much change occurring in the '70s was the widening of the generation gap. While teenagers had always rebelled against their parents, teens and young adults in the '70s were were actually growing up in an entirely new culture. It was a culture of free expression and freedom of choice that could not even be imagined by their middle aged parents, and it may have been these new found freedoms that also made the '70s famous for constantly changing fads. In an effort to figure out who they were now, young adults in the '70s seemed to be willing to change their appearance, and sometimes their entire lifestyle rapidly based on the latest fad.

As far as women's sexuality went, the 1966 ruling on non-fiction books about sex presented women of the '70s more information about sex than ever before. These books had a number of things in common. They were factual, educational, and they were readily available in the mainstream bookstores rather than being hidden in the seedy adult shops. They were stacked high on the tables of discount bookstores, they were book club selections, and their authors were guests on late-night talk shows. People were seen reading them in public, and it wasn't uncommon to find Playboy magazine or a copy of Fanny Hill in a respectable middle-class home, though they were more likely to be kept out of sight rather than displayed on the coffee table. Books and magazines about sex acknowledged and celebrated the conscious cultivation of erotic pleasure, and the contribution of such books and magazines to the sexual revolution cannot be overstated.

Magazines centering on women's health and sexuality were in homes across America, and one of the most popular literary magazines, Cosmopolitan, was completely overhauled into a magazine focusing on women's sexuality. Although Cosmopolitan Magazine had been around since 1886, Helen Gurley Brown became chief editor in 1965 and remodeled the magazine. In the early 1970s, Cosmopolitan became a women's magazine complete with a sexy cover shot every month of a woman (usually) in a low cut dress or bikini. Brown wished to show the "single woman" that she was not alone in engaging in pre-marital sex; there were other women throughout the country who were doing the same thing. The magazine received a lot of criticism, and many people were shocked at the new message of the one-time literary magazine. Brown, however, took no notice and continued to print the magazine that she had envisioned. It wasn't long before other magazines followed suit, and new magazines focusing on women's health and beauty began featuring articles on women's sexuality.

The '70s also offered more in the way of women's sexuality on television. Sex on the small screen rivaled anything the silver screen had once offered, and sex in advertising was commonplace. Regardless of what the product was, TV commercials and magazine ads used an attractive, sometimes scantily clad female model to promote it.

Even with all of this, there's was still one item that appeared in the '70s that would forever embed the concept of the American women being a sexual being, and it's safe to say that this phenomenon undoubtedly had one of the greatest impacts on the future of the sexual woman than anything the '60s could imagine.

So what was this miraculous revelation that would forever change our perception of women? It was a poster of a then relatively unknown blond bombshell named Farrah Fawcett posing in a red, one piece bathing suit.

Even though the suit may not have revealed a lot of flesh, it clearly showed Fawcett's nipple pushing against the fabric. While this caught the attention of anyone viewing the poster, by the mid '70s, it wasn't considered explicit enough to cause an uproar, nor prevent it's sale to minors.

Not only did the poster sell, it sold like no other poster had before.

The Farrah Fawcett swimsuit poster became the top selling poster in the world, selling over 12 million copies*. Fawcett quickly became the most popular pinup queen of the '70's as young men around the world adorned their bedroom with her poster and watched her every week on the television show Charlie's Angels, starring Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, and Farrah Fawcett.

But men weren't the only ones who admired Farrah's looks.

Women across the United States were rushing to beauty parlors to get their hair feathered and styled like Fawcett's.

The poster was originally intended to be a bikini shot, but Farrah instead chose the now famous red one piece swimsuit to cover a childhood scar on her stomach.

When the photo was taken, Farrah Fawcett was still an unknown actress wanting to make it big. She hadn't yet signed on for her hit show Charlie's Angels, but had done some work doing commercials. The photo shoot was at Farrah's Bel Air, California, home of her and then-husband, actor Lee Majors. She did her own hair, and the photos were taken behind the couples home by their pool. Legend has grown around Farrah's 'prominent features,' and rumors abounded that she had used ice to harden and thus enhance her nipples, but the photographer Bruce McBroom, a freelance photographer who had worked with Farrah before, has always dispelled the rumor saying, "It was all Farrah". 

McBroom took a number of shots, including a sultry Farrah eating a cookie, but Farrah chose the final frame that would end up making her one of the most famous people of the 70's.

While claiming that one picture forever changed out perception of women may seem extreme,  when you consider all of the posters ever sold, and all of the hairstyles and fads that came and went in the '70s, no other image is remembered as vividly 30 years later by anyone that grew up in that era as the Farrah Fawcett swimsuit poster and her hairstyle.  One of the other more famous posters of 'The Fonz' of Happy Days fame sold more than a quarter-million copies*, a far cry from the 12 million copies* of the Farrah poster.
*Source wikipedia.org

By the time the '80s rolled around, the wealth of information in both books and in the women's and the men's magazines helped women became more sexually liberated in the bedroom, and they helped men not only accept women's new found liberation, but men enjoyed the fact more women were willing to be more open and aggressive in bed. Of course, as people's knowledge grew, so did their curiosity, and there were still a lot of sexual taboos.

Earlier books such as What Every Girl Should Know (Margaret Sanger, 1920) and A Marriage Manual (Hannah and Abraham Stone, 1939) had broken the utter silence in which many people had grown up, and by the 1950s it had finally become rare for women to go into their wedding nights literally not knowing what to expect, but the open discussion of sex and descriptions of sexual practices and techniques in the '70s was truly revolutionary.

While nudity in the home and swinging/wife swapping had become popular in the '70s, there were sexual practices some had heard of, but many adults didn't know for sure whether they were realities or fantasies found only in adult and pornographic books. Women and men were asking themselves, and others if these kinds of sexual practices were normal, and did married ladies do these things, or only prostitutes? While the Kinsey report had claimed that these practices were frequent, books with titles like Nice Girls Do -- And Now You Can Too published in 1980 by Dr. Irene Kassorla were answering these questions.

Things moved steadily forward into the '80s and '90s. People had accepted the Equal Rights Amendment as normal part of life, and while issues on women's sexuality and equality would appear in magazine articles, the TV news was interested in other events, and the women's movement faded into the background for the most part. Cassette Tapes had replaced Eight Track Players, and even though vinyl records still had a following, it wouldn't be long before they would start disappearing from the shelves at the music stores in favor of the cassette tapes.

Cable TV was replacing the roof mounted antenna in many homes during the 70's, and technology was on the rise throughout the '80s and '90s. People were starting to focus their attention on what's new rather than what's news. Video tapes were all the rage, and it wasn't long before a VHS player and recorder were commonplace. They were smaller and easier to use than the reel to reel projectors, and you could view the film on your television rather than on the wall or a movie screen. This was a new era, and along with it came a new way for people to get information, including information about sex.

While XXX VHS videos were still porn, many people were taking advantage of the ease of use of the VHS format, and they were watching the skin flicks not only for enjoyment, but as a source of information about what's new to try in the bedroom. Eventually the CD and DVD were introduced. They were more compact than the audio cassette tapes and video tapes, and you could select individual tracks rather than using the fast forward or rewind function. It took some time, but the CD eventually made its way into home and car stereos, and starting pushing the cassette tapes into the minority.

While the DVD didn't replace the VHS tapes completely, the DVD was growing in popularity, and the format is slowly making the VHS tapes a thing of the past as well. Although magazine sales were still doing good, How To books were starting to lose some ground to the video market, and when Porn Star Nina Hartley began releasing her Adult How-To series of videos and DVDs, they were an instant hit with people that already knew who Nina was, and with people who didn't, but were looking for more information about sex in a viewable rather than readable format.

Other adult How-To videos were becoming popular as well. Titles like A Lover's Guide To Self-Pleasuring and Better Sex Guide To Anal Pleasure were immediately popular because they explored topics like masturbation and anal sex, and Unlocking the Secrets of the G-Spot: The Ultimate O gave men and women the opportunity to learn about the G Spot and vaginal orgasms on their television screen rather than just reading about it. When Playgirl advice columnist Jamye Waxman released the Personal Touch Video Series, an educational series on sex presented in an adult theme, people from all walks of life couldn't get the set fast enough. With the video market increasing, How-To book topics like The Better Sex Guide to the Kama Sutra and The Tantric Guide to Sexual Potency were being released on video and DVD, and people now had the chance to learn about these popular topics by watching couples demonstrate the moves rather than just read about them and look at static images.

Another new invention became available during this time that would literally change the way we lived, learned, shopped, conducted business, and of course, got our information about sex, and that was the Personal Computer and access to the Internet.

Sex moved to the web, and many cheap porn sites began popping up overnight.

These sites became notorious for having viruses that would attack the hard drive on people's computers, and it wasn't until the major players in the industry like Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler went online and gave people the chance to view pornography online safely.  While there are still many adult sites that are notorious for computer viruses, adult sites like Passions Unchained began screening their content and using servers that scan for viruses to help prevent their visitors from getting a computer virus.

Sex toys also became available online, and this gave many people immediate access to them that either didn't have an adult book store in their area, or were afraid of being seen going into them by someone they knew. Most of the brick and mortar adult shops were located in the less desirable areas of most towns, which kept a lot of people away, and many of the products they offered were sometimes low quality knock offs of the more premium products. Like online porn, adult sex toy sites began showing up on the web, but many of them carried the same, poor quality products that that the sleazy adult book stores offered.  

When Adam & Eve and Hustler Hollywood went online, they already had a solid reputation for offering high quality sex toys and adult products through the mail, and customers that had been buying their products through their catalog over the years didn't hesitate to start shopping for sex toys at online adult stores like PassionsUnchained.com.

Sites like PassionsUnchained.com gave people easy internet access to the quality sex toys and adult products they wanted to buy. Adult online magazines, videos, sex toys and other adult products that were available on the web had come of age, and there was a new "Technology Revolution" in the making. Things like equal rights and the sexual revolution were little more than a page from history.

Whether we realized what was happening or not, in hindsight, it seems fairly obvious that for society as a whole to accept women becoming more sexually liberated, men would have to become more liberated as well. This meant that our culture would have evolve beyond the attitudes we had about sex in the '50s and develop a more open minded, relaxed social attitude about sex in general, and that's exactly what we did.

As a culture, we embraced women's new found sexual freedoms, and we welcomed the chance to talk about sex without having to whisper words like clitoris or orgasm. Everyone appeared to be happy, and it looked like men and women could now walk hand and hand in sexual harmony.

It seemed like everything was going along just fine, but some people couldn't leave well enough alone.

While anti-porn feminist groups, such as Women Against Pornography and similar organizations, became highly active in various US cities during the late 1970s, it wasn't as newsworthy as it had been in the '60s. What was newsworthy was that in 1979 televangelist Jerry Falwell founded a group called Moral Majority [2]. Among other things, the Moral Majority wanted to outlaw abortion, it opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, and it wanted censorship of media outlets that promote what it labeled as an 'anti-family' agenda. [2c-editorial comments]

Many religions have always viewed sex as something done strictly for the purpose of procreation, and taught that enjoying sex is a sin. Religious groups began to vocally attack women's new attitudes towards sex for satisfaction rather than just reproduction [3], and they attacked society as a whole for the fact people were admitting they enjoyed sex.

While it should come as no surprise that religious groups would condemn women that posed nude in magazines or stared in adult movies, logic would dictate that since these women were exercising their freedom of choice and celebrating their own sexual liberation, the feminist movement would not only defend these women's freedom of choice, they would hail them as heroines of their cause.

While there were large numbers of women involved in the feminist movement that did support their rights, some of the feminists tried to oppress these women's rights, and they condemned these women as well.

This caused a division in the women's movement, and the resulting "Feminist Sex Wars" in the 1980s. The anti-pornography feminists not only took a stand against pornography, they reversed their opinion on women's rights and sexual freedoms that they had been so vehement about in the '60s, and now claimed that the relaxation of social attitudes towards sex in general promoted the sexual objectification of women by men. Apparently some of these anti-pornography feminists thought people were so ignorant they would forget that in the '60s many feminists encouraged women into sexual liberation and having sex for pleasure with multiple partners. Women's sexual freedoms and sexual liberation was one of the major issues feminists had fought for in the '60s, and the new anti-pornography feminists were literally trying to change history by making the ridiculous claim the sexual revolution was a tool used by men to gain easy access to sex without the obligations of marriage and traditional social norms!

While this lack of knowledge made many people that were aware of the Feminist Sex Wars simply laugh at the anti-pornography feminists, the Moral Majority was capturing most of the media's attention, and the turmoil inside of the feminist movement went un-noticed by many. But when MacKinnon and Dworkin [4] attempted to classify pornography as a violation of women's civil rights in the 1980s, people did take notice. Feminists opposing anti-pornography stances began referring to themselves as "pro-sex" or "sex-positive feminists" [5]. Sex-positive feminists claimed that anti-pornography ordinances contrived by MacKinnon and Dworkin called for the removal, censorship, or control over sexually explicit material. The "sex wars" resulted in the feminist movement being split into two opposing camps over questions about pornography, consent, sexual freedom, and the relationship of free speech to equality.

Once again, the feminist movement was a hot topic, and so was women's sexuality. Not only was pornography under attack, but society as a whole. The rights of women to be sexually liberated and be free to make their own choices about their bodies was being attacked as well. This new wave of feminists were no longer fighting FOR women's rights, they were fighting to SUPPRESS women's rights! Not only did the men's magazines defend themselves, the mainstream women's magazines focused on these issues as well. While there were some articles focusing on the pornography issue, a more subtle change was taking place. More aggressive articles about women's sexuality began showing up in the mainstream magazines, and when the smoke cleared from all of the hoopla over the pornography issue, the focus on sexuality became more prevalent, and some women's magazines were suddenly pushing some of the family friendly limits when it came to talking openly about sex.  Articles written by sex therapists were all the rage, and the sexologists were discussing orgasms, the male penis, the female vagina and clitoris without using other terms so that the adults would know what they meant without the children understanding it. Television began talking about sex in sitcoms, and the sexual revolution took another giant leap forward.

The 21st Century:

It has been a rough ride for the topic of women's sexuality to reach the point it's at today. After half a century of turmoil and controversy, modern women, and modern women's and men's magazines are still focusing heavily on women's sexuality. Mainstream publications aren't only publishing articles about women's sexuality, but covering such controversial topics as oral sex, anal sex, and multiple orgasms as well.

We know there were a lot of other major events that have occurred between 1950 and 2007. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Nixon and the Watergate Scandal, the Disco craze in the late '70s, the Baby Boom, the Yuppie phenomenon, and hundreds of others, but while other events affected us politically, socially, emotionally, and economically, the effect they had on the changes that took place with regards to women's sexuality were either minimal or non existent. The rumored increase in women being more promiscuous at the discos may or may not have been true, but even if they were true, they were more of a result than a cause of increased sexual awareness in and about women.

Many people try to credit the hippie (or hippy) movement and their ideas of 'free love' with much of the progress made in women's sexuality. While the hippie movement did start in the mid 1960s, hippies were part of a subculture youth movement composed mostly of white teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15 and 25. Hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Eastern philosophy,[6] were often vegetarian and eco-friendly, promoted the use of psychedelic drugs to expand one's consciousness, and created intentional communities or communes. This type of activity was so far removed from the mainstream, most of society not only rejected the hippies ideals, they felt more contempt for them than anything else. Once the movement declined and the hippie counterculture was largely assimilated by the mainstream, their religious and cultural diversity did eventually gain widespread acceptance, and Eastern philosophy and spiritual concepts did reach a wide audience, but this didn't start to occur until the mid to late '70s and early '80s. By this time, the sexual revolution was well beyond it's infancy, and the hippie ideals were gradually incorporated into modern society rather than the ideals themselves influencing the changes that had taken place. So while hippies may have embraced the sexual revolution, and their philosophy of 'free love' promoted it, had it not been for the women's movement coinciding with the hippie movement in the 60s, because of the contempt mainstream society had for the hippies in the '60s, it's likely that the hippie movement alone would have done more harm than good for the advancement of women's sexual awareness.

Whether or not the eventual progress of society from the 1950s to the 2000s would have brought about these changes without the influence of the women's movement is only something we can speculate about, but it's not hard to see how the conflicts and turmoil created by the women's movement have placed so much focus on women's sexuality over the past half a century, and how it has undoubtedly had the largest effect on what types of information has become available to us about the exploration and understanding of women's sexuality in magazines, on the internet, and on television.

Problems, conflicts, and repercussions

As hard as it's been to make positive changes since the '60s, even the positive changes have caused new problems.

While the women's movement and the sexual revolution may have brought about many positive changes in both men's and women's attitudes towards sex, it has also brought with it challenges regarding the traditional roles of men and women in society. While some women are still fighting for equality in the work place, others are finding that 'having it all' and being a career woman, a wife, a mother, a homemaker, and a sexual woman not only puts too much demand on their physical limits, but their emotional limits as well. Many women have decided they would rather be full-time, stay-at-home moms, or even just stay-at-home wives, and leave the responsibility of being the bread winner to the men. While this arrangement has worked for a lot of couples, the idea the man retaking his place as 'king of his castle' and the wife still maintaining her liberated, equal status has created new conflicts in many relationships.

Compounding these conflicts is the fact that many modern day feminists have taken a radical approach and have not only criticized stay-at-home moms as traitors to their gender, they have tried to make them feel like they are somehow less of a woman. Whether these radical feminists thought modern day women could be intimidated, or they forgot women were capable of making their own decisions about who they want to be, these tactics have backfired, and a lot of women have stood up for their right to make their own choices about how they choose to identify themselves. Many women that were once proud to call themselves a feminist have either turned their back on the new generation of feminists, or have fought against them. These new "Feminist Sex Wars" have resulted in many women not 'wanting it all' but still identifying with their liberated status, and labeling the new extremists Fem-Nazis, with the implied dictatorial nature of the title being obvious.

Add to this conflict the fact that even though more men are making an effort to understand a woman's sexual needs, they're starting to be more vocal about their own needs. Like the old saying goes, it takes two to tango. There's a new wind starting to blow on the horizon regarding the fact that men have sexual needs beyond strictly ejaculating, and people are realizing there's a lot more to a couple's satisfying sex life than just satisfying a woman in bed.

Even though women being more open, and more aggressive sexually has been pleasurable for both women and men, it's inevitable that the backlash of 50 years of society telling men they need to be more sensitive and focus on the wants and needs of women would eventually leave men feeling like their own wants and needs have been ignored.

Repercussions of a sexually mature society by narrow minded people in power creates even more conflicts.

Sadly, as more people embrace a more open attitude toward sexuality, others not only close their minds even more, but use fear tactics to try and force others to conform to their sexually inhibited way of thinking.

While we don't deny that sexual harassment and abuse are legitimate issues, but the ridiculous extremes many people are taking the definition of sexual harassment and abuse to aren't helping matters any. The situation has gotten so out of hand that it's entirely possible to find yourself facing charges of sexual harassment for simply asking someone out on a date. Some people in positions of authority are so scared of sex that families are finding themselves facing new problems as well that put a strain on their home life, and their sex life. All you have to do is watch the news to see how families are being terrorized by public schools and local authorities when their pre-teen boys are arrested and charged as a sex offenders for doing nothing more than playing a game similar to tag with the girls at their school, or when a five year old is accused of sexual misconduct for giving his teacher a hug. While no one in their right mind would consider the actions of these children to have anything to do with sex, both of these situations actually occurred, and fairly recently.

While these problems may seem like they have nothing to do with the sexual revolution, it's not too hard to see that the absurdity of these cases probably have more to do with some people's fear of sex rather than the reality of sexual harassment.

While these are just our editorial opinions, and we're making general observations about fictional characters rather than any real individual or individuals living or dead (yeah, we know the law regarding liable and slander, so we're covering our ass), we're of the opinion that if ANY adult considers a child's normal behavior as sexual in any way, we would be more inclined to worry about the ADULT'S hidden sexual agenda rather than the child's, and we can't help but wonder whether or not that particular adult may have inappropriate desires and sexual fantasies about young children.

Before we allow our own disgust of how local governments flagrantly violate peoples civil rights get us too far off of the subject of this article, we can only apologize and say that when a persons lack of intelligence and sexual frustrations affects their personal life, that's a problem they need to deal with. But when it's a person in a position of authority, and the law allows that person's lack of proper sex education, and possibly their own personal sexual frustrations and inadequacies to adversely affect the lives of others, we tend to get a little passionate on the subject.

Looking to the future:

While this article isn't about children, it's impossible to look to the future without considering the fact that today's children are tomorrows adults, leaders, activists, and decision makers. What we teach them today will be the things they fight for tomorrow, whether it be freedom or oppression.

There are still a lot of conflicts regarding men's and women's roles in a sexually liberated society, and the rights of parents to teach their children about sex. Sex is still a topic that some people are uncomfortable talking about, to both their children and other adults, and it's not surprising when you consider that for the past 200 years many people were taught that sex is dirty, nasty, and that enjoying sex is wrong. Even as we enter the 21st century, some people still feel masturbation, oral sex, and anal sex is wrong, and that using contraceptives is a sin. To make things worse, they are teaching these antiquated ideas to their children. While this is their right, eventually those children are going to grow up, and they are going to have questions about sex, and question whether or not their parents views are the same ones they want to embrace.

We're almost ten years into the new millennium, and even though there has been a lot of progress in the last fifty years, there's still a large number of adult women that have questions about their own orgasm.

It's sad that after 50 years of sexual revolution and evolution, many men and women are still in the dark about sex. There are still men and women that don't know how to find a woman's G Spot, are embarrassed when talking about masturbation, have never tried oral sex, aren't sure how to have anal sex without pain, and many sexually active women still have yet to achieve their first orgasm, let alone multiple orgasms.

It's painfully obvious why there is still such a high demand for information on women's sexuality.

[2]  Back ^ Moral Majority was an organization made up of conservative Christian political action committees which campaigned on issues its personnel believed were important to maintaining its Christian conception of moral law, a conception they believed represented the opinions of the majority of Americans (hence the movement's name). With a membership of millions, the Moral Majority was one of the largest conservative lobby groups in the United States. During the 1980 presidential election, the Moral Majority is credited with giving Ronald Reagan two-thirds of the white evangelical vote, over Jimmy Carter [1a].
Some issues for which the Moral Majority campaigned included:[1b]
• outlawing abortion.
• opposition to state recognition and acceptance of homosexuality.
• opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
• enforcement of a traditionalist vision of family life.
• censorship of media outlets that promote what it labeled as an 'anti-family' agenda.
[2a] "When worlds collide: politics, religion, and media at the 1970 East Tennessee Billy Graham Crusade. (appearance by President Richard M. Nixon)", Journal of Church and State, March 22, 1997. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
[2b] Moral Majority". Columbia Encyclopedia 6th ed.. (2004). Columbia University Press. Retrieved on2007-08-11.
[2c] Editorial commentary: The wide scope of the Moral Majority's proposals would not only have given them the authority to outlaw abortion, homosexuality and pornography, they would have been able to eliminate any and all equal rights for women, and by using the terms 'media' and 'anti-family', they were encompassing such a wide definition of terms that in essence, they were asking for unlimited power to ban anything that they didn't approve of, whether it appeared in print, on TV, at the movies, on radio, across the internet, or in any other form of media. Additionally, the terminology they chose to use in their agendas was so vague that had they been able to obtain government sanction in any kind of authoritative capacity, they would have had unlimited and ultimate authority to dictate over any issue they claimed fell within their definition of being anti-family. After nine years of efforts to overthrow the civil rights of the American people, the Moral Majority dissolved in 1989.

[3]  Back ^ Judaism: Traditional Judaism prohibits sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage, maintains biblical strictures on relations within marriage including observance of Niddah, a prohibition on relations on a period including the menstrual period, and Tzniut, requirements of modest dress and behavior. Traditional Judaism views adultery, incest, and male homosexuality as grave sins. See Jewish views of homosexuality. Judaism permits relatively free divorce, with Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism requiring a religious divorce ceremony for a divorce to be religiously recognized. More liberal branches of Judaism have adapted perspectives more consistent with contemporary general secular culture.
Christianity: despite the wide variations between different Christian denominations, which often specifically include different views of sexuality, it is possible to draw a general picture of the underlying views and Biblical doctrines. The basis of many Christian views comes from the idea that human sexuality was created by God with the twin purposes of procreation and intimacy—bringing a sexually active couple into a close emotional and spiritual relationship through the close physical relationship. As such, it should be restricted to a lifelong relationship between a man and a woman. Marriage is a commitment to a close and lasting relationship and a basis on which to build a stable family. Because of the emphasis on the procreative function of sex, relationships and specific acts that do not lead to conception are frowned upon or expressly forbidden in some denominations. According to fundamentalist Christian teachings, engaging in sodomy is a sin, as it is not procreative and is believed to be contrary to God's intentions for sex
Protestant and Anglican Churches: Sex outside of marriage is frowned upon as immoral behavior by fundamentalist and conservative Christian churches, sects, and some fringe groups.
Islam and sexuality: Forbidden sexual contact includes genital contact with a woman while she is menstruating. In such case, other sexual contact (such as kissing) is explicitly allowed. Anal sex, whether it be between a married couple or not, is forbidden by most scholars. Other forms of sexual contact, such as oral sex, are not explicitly forbidden, and hence widely held to be permissible.
Hinduism: Unlike other religions, in Hinduism views of sexual morality differ widely depending on the region and sect. Hindu scriptures themselves are often vague about sexuality.
Neopaganism: Neo-Pagan religions tend to be positive about sexuality. Wicca, like other religious philosophies has a spectrum of adherents including those with conservative views to liberal views. However nothing in Wiccan philosophy prohibits sexual intercourse outside of marriage or relationships between members of the same sex
(Re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_Sexuality)
Catholicism: The Roman Catholic Church has been morally opposed to contraception for as far back as one can historically trace. The Catechism of the Catholic Church specifies that all sex acts must be both unitive and open to the possibility of procreation.[3a] In addition to condemning use of birth control, non-procreative sex acts such as mutual masturbation and oral sex are ruled out as ways to avoid pregnancy.[3b]and masturbation, fornication, adultery, pornography, prostitution, rape, homosexual acts,[3c] and contraception are regarded by the Catholic Church as gravely disordered actions.

For much of its existence, the Church heavily emphasized procreation as the primary purpose of sex, some Catholics even believed that intercourse at times where pregnancy was not a possible result (such as current pregnancy and menopause) was sinful.[3d] Pope Pius XI's 1930 encyclical entitled Casti Connubii was written in response to the Anglican Communion's Seventh Lambeth Conference, which approved contraceptive use in limited circumstances. Casti Connubii confirmed the Church's position opposing birth  control:
"Since, therefore, openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine regarding this question, the Catholic Church, ... in order that she may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being defiled by this foul stain, ... proclaims anew: any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin.[3e] "

[3a] #2351, 2352, 2363, 2366, 2369, 2370. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition Article 6: The Sixth Commandment. United States Catholic Conference (2000). Retrieved on 2006-06-15.
[3b] Douglas J. Schuurman (2001). Is Procreation the Primary Purpose of Sex? Feminist Reconsiderations of the Catholic Natural Law Tradition (html). Seminars in Christian Scholarship. Calvin College. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.
[3c] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2351–2357
[3d] Marilyn Yalom (2001). A history of the wife. London: HarperCollins, pp. 297-8. ISBN 0-06-019338-7.
[3e] Casti Connubii: Encyclical of Pope Pious XI on Christian Marriage, December 31, 1930 (html). The Vatican. Retrieved on 2006-10-01.
Unlike Catholics who have a central ecclesiastical authority, the Magisterium (see below), Protestants do not have (and indeed reject having) such an authority. Protestant views of contraception are thus much more diverse than Catholic views.
Magisterium (from the Latin magister, "teacher") is a technical ecclesiastical term in Roman Catholic Church referring to the teaching authority of the church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the church, led by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) has authority over the bishops, individually and as a body, as well as over each and every Catholic directly. According to Catholic doctrine, the Magisterium is able to teach or interpret the truths of the Faith, and it does so either non-infallibly or infallibly. According to the Levels of the Magisterium: Bishops proposing definitively, dispersed, but in unison, in union with Pope Ordinary and universal teaching of the Church Infallible Full Assent of Faith; Bishops, in union with Pope, defining doctrine at General Council Extraordinary (and universal teaching of the Church) Infallible Full Assent of Faith; Pope ex cathedra are considered infallible.

[4]  Back ^ Anti-pornography ordinances authored by MacKinnon and Dworkin in the United States sought for harm against victims, in relation to pornography, to be made actionable. Soon afterwards, obscenity laws passed in Canada (1985), and books and materials that fell under the new definition of pornography were removed. The Canadian Supreme Court decision R. v. Butler (1992), which upheld these laws, drew heavily on MacKinnon's arguments that pornography is a form of sex discrimination. MacKinnon has written in support of this trend in Canadian anti-pornography law, though at the same time, holding that Canada should abandon traditional obscenity law entirely in favor of a civil rights approach. Many free speech and gay rights activists allege the law is selectively enforced, targeting the LGBT community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) MacKinnon has distanced herself from the selective enforcement of Canadian obscenity law against gays and lesbians, holding that anti-pornography laws should make no distinction between gay and heterosexual pornography.

[5]  Back ^ Sex-positive feminism, sometimes known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a movement that was formed in the early 1980s. Some became involved in the sex-positive feminist movement in response to efforts by anti-pornography feminists, such as Catharine MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin, Robin Morgan and Dorchen Leidholdt, to put pornography at the center of a feminist explanation of women's oppression (McElroy, 1995). This period of intense debate and acrimony between sex-positive and anti-pornography feminists during the early 1980s is often referred to as the "Feminist Sex Wars". Other, less academic, sex-positive feminists became involved not in opposition to other feminists, but in direct response to what they saw as patriarchal control of sexuality. Authors who have advocated sex-positive feminism include Ellen Willis, Susie Bright, Patrick Califia, Gayle Rubin, Avedon Carol, and Betty Dodson. Authors and activists who have written important works about sex-positive feminism, and/or contributed to educating the public about it, include Ellen Willis, Gayle Rubin, Susie Bright, Carol Queen, Kathy Acker, Betty Dodson, Annie Sprinkle, Candida Royalle, Nina Hartley and Inga Muscio. Several of these have written from the perspective of feminist women working in the sex industry. Nonprofit groups supporting sex-positive feminism include the (now-defunct) Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force (associated with Carole Vance and Ann Snitow), Feminists for Free Expression, and Feminists Against Censorship, associated with anti-censorship and civil liberties campaigner Avedon Carol.

[6]  Back ^ Oldmeadow 2004, pp. 260, 264.

Additional sources and references for this article include the Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia on topics of Feminism, Sex Positive Feminism, Sex , Religion, Moral Majority and related topics.

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