Tuesday, December 02, 2014

The sexual revolution

Mangin writes:
The sexual revolution, enabled by penicillin and the pill, is like nothing ever seen in history. So maybe its consequences could not have been foreseen. The current younger generations appear to think that life has always been this way.

Men don't have it quite as bad, as their value in the market doesn't decline nearly as rapidly as women.

He refers to this poem written by Phillip Larkin:
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And the Beatles' first LP.

Up to then there'd only been
A sort of bargaining,
A wrangle for the ring,
A shame that started at sixteen
And spread to everything.

Then all at once the quarrel sank:
Everyone felt the same,
And every life became
A brilliant breaking of the bank,
A quite unlosable game.

So life was never better than
In nineteen sixty-three
(Though just too late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And the Beatles' first LP.
Read more here.

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