'Love for Sale' - Sex and the Second American Revolution

Abstract

"Love for Sale" is the title of one of Cole Porter's most beautiful songs. Written in 1930, its lyrics were banned from public performance for many years because they dealt none too subtly with prostitution. But by the 1960s the ban had disappeared, and today the lyrics would hardly raise an eyebrow. If one wonders what happened, the answer is that from the end of World War II in 1945 to the present, this country has undergone a sexual revolution. Why this revolution came when it did, or so rapidly, isn't easy to say. But in a little over half a century, the sexual landscape of America has been profoundly transformed. Love is still for sale: the question today is at what price.

My aim here is to trace the history of this revolution and to raise some of its implications for men and women struggling to come to terms with issues of sexuality - issues bound up with religion, morality, home and family, the workplace, the political process, and their private lives.

Keywords: history, sex