Make Love, Not War

I am going to skip past a couple of decades and jump into the 1960s and 70s. Peace. Free love. LCD. The sixties and seventies deeply effected the way dating is viewed upon today. Americans during this time period were rebelling against everything; the way they viewed marriage, sex, and the idea of family were all topics up for debate. The Vietnam War was factor in the free love movement. Violence from the war made many people back home want to openly express their love with one another. Make love, not war was the famous term coined from this era; there was a lot of love being made. Woman felt the ultimate empowerment when birth control was created. Before birth control, men were in control of sex. Sex depended on whether or not the male had a condom. No condom, no sex. I am just going to assume that it was that way. Birth control allowed for there to be more spontaneity.  With all great things, there will be a downside. Birth control permitted sex without protection, which led to a rapid spread of sexual transmitted diseases. Thankfully, this outbreak is in better control, and my generation is more informed about the consequences of having unprotected sex. Disco was the lifestyle of the time. Clubs were filled with sequin suits and bellbottom pants. Drugs began taking over the more urban cities. One may ask why drugs are prevalent to me finding answer to why dating has changed. Being an African American female, the drug use from the sixties and seventies directly affects my potential suitors and me.  Drugs in the inner city left many people dead, and a numerous amount of the African American male population in prison. Many mothers left their children hungry, so they can go satisfy their high. Many of these abandoned children grew up to be the unstable parents that raise my generation.  My generation is the product of these broken homes. I am not giving guys an excuse to be douches, but they do not have good examples to follow.  During this time porn began developing. Today porn is multi-billion dollar industry, and it continues to grow. Men and women both watch porn to masturbate. Some couples watch porn before sex. Although porn is prosperous, it degrades both men and woman as sexual object. There are men who now treat women badly because of porn. Young boys and girls are growing up too fast because they easily access it on the Internet. Porn negatively impacted the way dating should occur. Porn has protection because of the first amendment, but I feel that something should have been done to stop the production of porn when it was first created. The fact that teenage boys had Playboy had magazines did not help the situation. This era gave reason behind many of the negative dating habits. Sex became to be too important of a factor in a relationship. The sixties and seventies seemed to be great for that moment, but there was little preparation for future generations.