“Silent” Sexual Revolution According to Petigny’s research, the otherwise, one would need somehow Began In 1940s and ‘50s sexual revolution actually began during to reconcile the more than doubling of World War II, which had a great liberal- illegitimacy among whites, the more than The sexual revolution did not start izing effect on values, affecting every- tripling of all out-of-wedlock births and in the free-loving 1960s as is com- thing from child-rearing to religion. the evidence of a dramatic increase in pre- monly thought, a University of Florida For example, the proportion of the marital pregnancies.” researcher says. It began with the “silent population that considered alcoholism Between 1940 and 1960, the fre- generation” of the 1940s and ‘50s, which a disease rather than a moral failing quency of single motherhood among as its moniker implies, didn’t talk much increased from 6 percent in 1944 to white women increased from 3.6 to 9.2 about sex. more than 60 percent in 1954, Petigny newborns per 1,000 unmarried white U.S. Census Bureau statistics on pre- said. Dr. Benjamin Spock, in his 1946 women of childbearing age, Petigny said. marital pregnancy and vital statistics on book The Common Sense Book of Baby Among all women, single motherhood single motherhood between 1940 and and Child Care, which was second only rose from 7.1 to 21.6 newborns per 1960 point to the unexpected conclusion to the Bible in sales, advised parents not 1,000 unwed women, he said. that there was much more sexual activ- to become alarmed by their children “Between the beginning of World ity during those decades than Americans masturbating. By 1950, even the politi- War II in 1941 and the inaugural issue were willing to admit, said Alan Petigny, cally conservative Norman Vincent Peale of Playboy in 1953, the overall rate of a UF history professor whose research was warning his readers about the dan- single motherhood more than doubled,” was published in the fall issue of the gers of sexual repression, Petigny said. he said. “The silent generation may have Journal of Social History. He relied on vital statistics and census been silent about what they were doing, “People didn’t start having sex data rather than sexual surveys, such as but they weren’t all that complacent.” because Elvis Presley was shaking his those completed by Alfred Kinsey and The crucial distinction between the hips or because Hugh Hefner came out his staff in the ‘40s and ‘50s because the ‘40s and ‘50s and the 1960s are in differ- with Playboy,” said Petigny, who said government’s hard numbers are likely ences between conventions and conduct he is the first historian to use census more reliable. “Because rates of single — what people said versus what they did, data focusing on premarital pregnan- motherhood focus on what people have Petigny said. During the ‘60s, Americans cies. “After 15 years of Depression and done as opposed to what people claim simply were more willing to acknowledge war, there was also a desire on the part to have done — or not to have done the extracurricular sexual activities of the of Americans to live in the moment and — they are significantly more reliable young than they had been during the enjoy life, and they were accordingly less than either subject interviews or polling previous decades, he said. likely to defer to traditional restraints on data,” he said. Rather than a sexual revolution, an their behavior.” “The evidence upheaval in social conventions is what from our study occurred in the 1960s. What was pub- using census data licly respectable changed enormously as suggests that the social conventions came into line with ‘40s and ‘50s personal conduct or as public manners experienced converged with private morals, he said. a sizeable Lawrence Friedman, a visiting profes- increase in the sor in the history of science department frequency of at Harvard University, calls Petigny’s premarital findings “very revolutionary.” Petigny intercourse,” tells us that “during the ‘40s and ‘50s big he said. social and cultural changes occurred, and “To argue we acknowledged them and they became part of ‘60s headlines when the changes had already occurred,” he said. “It’s quite extraordinary for a young historian to think this big and this broadly.”

Alan Petigny, [email protected]

Cathy Keen

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