Analysis Of Sex In The Heartland By Beth Lawrence

In Sex in the Heartland, Beth Bailey details how the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s manifested in the seemingly polarized town of Lawrence, Kansas. Though the town was small and was in no way revolutionary like the cities of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, the city of Lawrence was conditioned by many outside social, cultural, and political aspects, which led to it having such an intricate role in the sexual revolution and the other cultural and social movements of the 1960s. Beth Bailey seems to argue that Lawrence, despite being a small town in the heart of the American farmland and no where near any so-called powder-kegs of the 1960s was still able to become a central location for vocalization because of the roles of

Though Lawrence was as much a central location as any other city or town in America, especially since it was the host of a branch of the University of Kansas, the revolution that took place within it was merely projected on the community from the larger stage of American culture. Issues such as gay and lesbian rights, women’s rights, the civil rights movement, and other social and cultural issues were brought to Lawrence, not born within it. Bailey mentions numerous times how, in the geographical sense, Lawrence became a central location in which the issues of the 1960s could be expressed and discussed; she mentions specifically how, when the counterculture of Lawrence began to take root and become an adversarial force in the city, that many of the problems of the counterculture, such as drugs and people, came to Lawrence as they went across America towards intended destinations, such as San Francisco (143). Also, Lawrence as a community and an institution became more open to the issues of the 1960s and the changes brought about; Bailey’s argument for this is highly cemented in the history of birth control in Lawrence and the University. She makes note that not only was one of the major supporters of birth control in Kansas was Dr. Dale Clinton, who was the director of

Though her history can, and should be, characterized as a look into the historical changes Lawrence faced during this decade, it also proves to be an example as to how far reaching the social and political changes of the ‘60s really were in the United States. Her historical subject and its location are perfectly conditioned to address this topic; as being the location of the University of Kansas and being the converging point for different peoples and beliefs, Lawrence seemed to have no choice but to host and take part in the activism of the decade, making it all the more easy to analyze. Though her chosen location is intended to appear polarized, the city of Lawrence itself had all the makings for a central location in the social movement of the 1960s and shouldn’t be seen as a helpless victim to the activism of the decade and the other results of the social and political