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Essay On Sexuality In American History

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Sexuality throughout American History is something that has been consistently changing since the colonies were first established, and has done so while also being influenced by changes in the environment and ways of thinking surrounding it. Essentially: as society changes, so does the way sexuality is looked at in both the private and public spheres. With the rise of industrialization and mass consumerism in America, changes in the relationship between sexuality and the public sphere become a common occurrence, defining sexuality for years and years to come. Sexuality is something that has been regulated, in a sense, by people’s interests since the dawn of America. The colonies had extremely restrictive views of what was okay in both the …show more content…

Things such as newspapers, television, magazines and books, however, were. Films such as Billy Wilder’s The 7 Year Itch in 1955 and the rise of “porno chic” films in the late 60’s and 70’s including Blue Movie (1969), Mona (1970), and Deep Throat (1972) contributed greatly to the sexual revolution in that era as well. The moral standards in 1940’s and 50’s America’s public sphere greatly restricted the sexual freedom of those involved in counterculture, and the release of these films spoke greatly to what many American’s wanted to see. 7 Year Itch, though comedic at heart, was written after George Axelrod took great influence from the Kinsey Reports (1948-53) which led to a rise in sexual permissiveness. Though originally a play, Wilder and Axelrod adapted it to a film where it reached a mass audience and launched Marilyn Monroe into superstardom. Similarly, the introduction of “porno chic” was another huge influence on sexuality and how it related to the public sphere. Films like Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones (1973) were huge box office success stories. During this time period there was also a massive increase of sexual encounters between unmarried individuals (Brown) and new institutions of sex, as well as a new set of relaxed morals on sex, specifically casual sex, between many American

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