Sexuality and the Sixties

• The sixties are often seen as the pivotal decade when legal, medical and social changes led to a profound growth in liberal values in Britain
• Marie Stope's 'Married Love' published in 1918 was a bestseller that challenged the general reluctance to discuss sex in public
• There were widespread concerns that the Second World War had undermined traditional values by separating husbands and wives, promoting sex outside marriage and encouraging divorce
• While the number of divorces did increase to a peak in 1947, they rapidly fell after this
• By 1975, there were more than twice as many divorces as marriages
• Mass Observation reports suggest that women who had wartime affairs saw them as the product of difficult circumstances and were happy to go back to stable relationships with their husbands once the war ended
• Many popular post-war books helped to promote a more open attitude towards sexuality
• The most important post-war book was by Alfred Kinsey, his thoroughly researched 1953 book, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, did much to undermine moral condemnation of sex before marriage
• The 1959 Obscene Publications Act recognised greater public openness to sexual images and discussion, but only at an elite level, while 'serious works of art' could use obscene words and images and it was not until 1977 that the law was extended to include films
• The further relaxation of censorship in the 1968 Theatres Act, had in practice, led the British Board of Film Directors to allow the screening of films with some sexual content before 1977
• The soft porn film Emmanuelle was fourth most popular film in 1974