Sexual Revolution In The 1920's

In the 1920’s the sexual revolution occurred, it gave the right for women to be looked at as sexual beings, in fact it was now a women’s expectation to be sexual. The sexual revolution started when women were starting to be seen as individuals and not as extensions of their husbands and that they were looked upon as more than just mothers. For teenagers dating changed because of the car, there was now the phenomenon of parking which led to a rise in premarital sex and premarital pregnancy (The Decline of Women’s Political Culture Slide 10). Marriage also changed drastically, husbands and wives were now supposed to be friends. With women now being looked at as sexual beings the importance of sex in the relationship rose, especially the women’s

right to pleasure. However, there was still the fear of pregnancy because of lack of birth control (The Decline of Women’s Political Culture Slide 11). Now that women were sexy, they were supposed to be sexy all the time and if something was wrong with their marriage it was their fault, not the husbands. There was switch in social roles of heterosociality versus homosociality. “Same-sex emotional and physical intimacy became increasingly stigmatized and labeled as homosexuality” (RP 393). Women who didn’t conform to the idea of heterosociality were told something was wrong with them and were accused of being lesbians (The Decline of Women’s Political Culture Slide 14). For Mexican American women, it was hard to embrace the sexual revolution due to the chaperone culture. It was harder for young women to date and become sexual when they had the burden of being labeled a Madonna or a whore (WAE 313). These women wanted to break the stereotype of the teenage mother, but they also wanted to go out and have fun. So, it was a double-edged sword for them.
men. After being in the workforce their self-esteem rose because she had a “belief in women’s own capabilities” (RP 184).