Sex and Change

There is little doubt that there have been marked changes in sexual morality during the past several years, and that these changes have affected women, especially young women, more dramatically than men. Although behavioral experts believe that reports of a "sexual revolution" are greatly exaggerated, they agree that some profound changes--especially in attitude --have taken place.

Unlike their parents, for example, many members of the new generation look on premarital sex as good instead of bad. One result is that the cult of the virgin is nearly dead; a Gallup poll in 1970 found three out of four students indifferent to virginity--or lack of it--in the person they marry. Berkeley Sociologist Mildred Henry has found that such changes in attitude are particularly characteristic of girls from "fundamental Christian homes."

Emancipated young people are "getting rid of the idea that sex is something men do to women," says Gynecologist Philip Sarrel of Yale's sex counseling service. Influenced, perhaps, by Masters and Johnson, girls think of orgasm as a legitimate and attainable pleasure. Besides, reports Stanford Psychiatrist Donald Lunde, there is "an equalization of sexual activity between men and women."

Nowadays, young people begin to have sex earlier than at any other time in U.S. history. Over the past 20 years, Lunde notes, there has been a substantial increase in the number of college-age women who engage in masturbation and intercourse. University of Minnesota Sociologist Ira Reiss observes that about 40% of women are non-virgins by age 20, and that 70% have had sex by the time they marry.

Says British Gynecologist John Slome: "The kiss of the 1940s and 1950s has become the sexual intercourse of the '60s and '70s."

How much these changes have been influenced by the Pill is a matter of dispute. Sociologist Henry believes the Pill has been greatly liberating. But Harvard Gynecologist John Grover, citing "the spiraling rate of unwanted pregnancies," is convinced that its impact is minor. According to Reiss, using the Pill makes some girls see themselves as "constantly on the alert for sex"; because "they can't accept that image of themselves, they won't take it."

Altered Behavior. University of Michigan Psychologist Judith Bardwick says that instead of liberating women to enjoy sex, the Pill has replaced fear of pregnancy with fear of being used. "Far from giving young women the sexual license that men have so long enjoyed, the Pill has caused some women to resent male freedom even more," she writes. "Far from alleviating anxiety over sexual use of the body, the Pill has exacerbated it." Besides, the Pill has in some cases altered behavior without changing motives. The woman of an earlier generation, hoping to keep her man, said no to premarital sex because she was afraid he would scorn her if she "succumbed." With the same end in view--holding on to a man--the contemporary woman often says yes because she knows the man will look for someone more willing if she refuses.

Grover voices another concern, that premarital sex may lead youngsters to expect too much of marriage, which demands more of partners than just sharing the same bed. Manhattan Psychiatrist Judianne Densen-Gerber considers the dangers even more grave: "The teen-age girl hung up on the idea of female orgasm ends up by humiliating her masculinity-obsessed but usually inexperienced partner," leaving both disillusioned with sex as a cure for alienation. "This syndrome is the major route to youthful drug addiction," she warns.

But there are positive sides to the new freedom. Cornell Psychiatrist James Masterson believes that social pressure to have sex sooner leads to early discovery and treatment of sexual problems. Besides, a succession of involvements "may teach one to deal not only with the emotional potential for a close relationship but also with the emotional problems of separation--two important keys to adjustment."

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