They embraced psychologist Sigmund Freud's Theory of the Libido that emphasized sexual experimentation as a natural human need. As a result, they influenced an increased understanding and acceptance of birth control. In the mids, the first birth control clinic was opened in the United States, and scientists studying fertility devised the "Rhythm Method" of birth control. Increased interest in reproductive control, paired with more effective contraceptive caps and suppositories, gave women increased control of their own sexuality.
The development of the movie theater, the radio and nightclubs changed popular culture forever -- and created new and exciting things to do. While the social realm of the previous generations was most often limited to the home, young people of the s experienced incredible social growth elsewhere. For the first time, cars made it possible for couples to travel to date destinations alone. More women were gaining independence from their parents to do what they wanted — by , about half of single women held down jobs.
Dating gave men the opportunity to ask a woman out for a private rendezvous, moving dating out of the home and into the public sphere. New technologies enjoyed by the new generation, such as enclosed automobiles, record players and the telephone, were also a factor in this revolution. Cars struck a chord with young men and women because they promoted freedom and allowed them an escape from chaperones. Parents and chaperones worried about the morals of those found necking in the back seat. Speakeasies gave couples a place to go alone together to drink, perhaps listen a jazz band and do one of the dance crazes of the time, such as the Charleston.
Trains also were a fashionable mode of transportation during the Prohibition era. The upper and middle classes took advantage of the trend offered by The Pullman Company, which operated dining, lounge and ballroom cars with live bands, creating the perfect situation for socializing. Then a chain is wrapped around their chests to measure breathing:. One end of the tube thus formed is sealed, the other connects to a manometer and also to a tambour supplied with a stylus. The stylus leaves a record on a moving paper tape showing the rate of respiration.
Essentially, if your pulse rate rises and you breathe more quickly while embracing or kissing your partner, Gernsback contends that this is scientific evidence of physical attraction. The sympathy test involves one of the partners watching the other go through something mildly traumatic, like having blood drawn. In these conditions, dating ceased to be specifically a search for a mate and became a means for casual social entertainment.
In colleges and high schools, where the practice spread, dating came to be regarded as a means to demonstrate popularity. For many young people, dating was a form of recreation and self-affirmation, not necessarily a real courtship of a potential life companion. Dating permitted a paired relationship without implying a commitment to marriage, and so it encouraged experimental relations. Petting and necking Petting and necking described a broad range of potentially erotic physical contacts, from casual kisses to more intimate caresses and fondling the distinction depending on whether the contact was above or below the shoulders.
Young people widely practised it as a perfectly acceptable expression of affection in a couple. All of this looked like huge freedom to the adults, who started to fear for a life of promiscuity for their children.
But if young people in the s did have a lot more freedom then their parents had had in term of choosing a partner and exploring that relationship, they still had limits that the adults sometimes failed to see. Limits held in place by the peer group itself. This generation developed a sexual behaviour that was a middle ground between the no-sex-at-all taboo of their parents and their own interests and marital aspirations.
They laid the basis for a massive change in the accepted standard. But with all their freedom, these youths were still influenced by their childhood training as well and the more immediate control and sanction of their peers. The peer group accepted and even encouraged the practices of dating and petting. These activities, however, were considered acceptable only if devoted to one person, the one who would likely become a life partner. Premarital intercourse became increasingly common as the contraception methods became more efficient.
Once again, it was acceptable only when it happened with a chosen partner, the one the person was going to marry. Intercourse with a casual partner, which was horrifying to their elders, was still strongly sanctioned even by peers. Although gender distinctions and sexual attitude were beginning to change, most of the sexual activity that did take place was only with a single partner whom the individual expected to marry. It was generally acknowledged that a young male could not be expected to be faithful to a single companion and he would explore and experiment.
A woman who behaved in the same way was considered to have abandoned her virtue. In fact, giving in to a man before marriage was always dangerous for a woman.
She may have a steady relationship or what appeared to be a stable relationship and decide to give herself to that man. But if the relationship then failed and she married a different man, the social consequences and sanctions of her act would still fall over her. They were enacting a social revolution, something that the Great Depression and then WWII would stop and prevent evolving until as far as the s.
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