Lectures For Lifelong Learners!

The invention of the birth control pill in the early 1960s heralded a new era of sexual openness after the restrictive 1950s. Women claimed sexual autonomy, Hollywood dropped its censorious Code, and abortion was legalized in 1973. But that’s not all: LGBTQ liberation was launched with the rebellion at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969, swingers came to the suburbs, sexual guides and discussions proliferated, and pornography became more mainstream. By 2023, some of these earmarks of sexual and gender liberation are being rolled back or challenged, while the Internet continues to influence and alter how people meet and relate, including sexually. The illustrated talk traces the events of the ongoing sexual revolution as well as resistance to it.