The Commodification of Sex

THE COMMODIFICATION OF SEX
by: Vincent Bohnert

            Hugh Hefner started the ever thriving corporation of Playboy back in 1953 and it is still going strong today.[1]  However, around that time of 1953, most people idealized sex for purposes of reproduction only and not just for pleasure or to have a good time as Hefner did.  This conservative view towards sex eventually became a lot more “loose” as Playboy’s popularity rose predominantly.

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            As Playboy and Hugh became more and more popular (especially with the men fighting in the Vietnam War), a change in gender roles began to take shape.  Women were suddenly becoming much more independent of men and proved it by going off to college to receive an education instead of being stay-at-home moms their whole lives.  Women even became afraid to marry after they graduated because they were afraid their husbands would make them stay at home and not let them follow their dreams.  As a result, marriage rates produced a steady decline starting in the early 1960’s and divorce rates rose adversely.

  These promiscuous Playboy magazines along with the controversy of the Vietnam War gave way to a newly formed counterculture or “Hippie” Movement which began in 1965.  Hippies, as they were called during their time, forever revolutionized not only sex in general but how sex is perceived and thought about.  If it wasn't for Hippies taking sex to its extremities, pornography might not have developed as fast or might not have even been legalized until much later.  The people part of the Hippie movement didn't just have sex, but they sure had a lot of it.  They also had liberal sided political views which lead to many debacles with the conservative government.  Hippies experimented with many different types of drugs including LSD, marijuana, and speed (usually they would do these drugs while having sex).

http://vietnamartwork.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/hippie.jpg

A huge part of this counterculture movement was the acceptance of gays and lesbians.  There was no judgment; only free thought and exploration.  In fact, many of the Hippies had sex with the same sex just to experiment and compare notes.[2]

Also around this time period, courtship changed to dating which was a more liberal and casual sort of relationship between a couple compared to the formal process of courtship.  This changed sex from being something that a couple only does when married to a more fun and lenient activity.  Although most of the older people during this time period did not approve of this form of relationship their sons and daughters were having, they did not stop the modernists from proceeding with the general trend of social intervention.

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[1]Hugh, Hefner. The Hugh Hefner Foundation, "Mr. Hefner's Biography." Last modified 2011. Accessed April 29, 2014. http://hmhfoundation.org/site/?page_id=20.

[2] bhaddock, "The 1960's Hippie Counterculture Movement,"Mortal Journey (blog), March 09, 2011, http://www.mortaljourney.com/2011/03/1960-trends/hippie-counter-culture-movement.