Development of the Concept of Sex in the culture Essay

Sex is no longer a taboo topic and obstacles surrounding sexuality have been lifted. This change of attitude toward this topic is mostly owed to the decline of religious beliefs, the increasingly common use of contraceptives, the proliferation of groups and organizations advocating for gay rights, and a mass-culture that is progressively becoming more open-minded. At that time a lot of magazines, novels and music promoted free sexuality, the Rolling Stones and their famous song "I can't get no " tackles the subject of very open sexuality with its lyrics " And I'm tryin' to make some girl/ Baby better come back maybe next week/ 'Cause you see I'm awful lewd this week ". In addition, the arrival of "erogenous" fashion like the miniskirt and tight pants was widely promoted by new and highly sexualized models. The media played a very big role in promoting this new way of living.
Nevertheless, the influence of the hippie movement in the US and of the psychedelic art spread the use of cannabis which became very common in the Swinging London era. It is especially linked to pop culture and ambient hedonism, many artists openly smoked cannabis, despite its illegality. In June 1967 a 'Legalise Pot' rally is held in London's Hyde Park'and a petition is signed there, the members of the Beatles signatures' can be seen among the other one. However the consumption of cannabis is not what most worries the United Kingdom, in 1965, the arrival of LSD and that of cocaine and heroin in 1967 marks a break in culture. The use of hard drugs causes a lot of damage, spread by the psychedelic wave, and popular in music festivals, these drugs will push great British stars like John Lennon and Eric Clapton to addiction ... In "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" The Beatles refer to drugs, in fact, although this has never been openly admitted by the members of the group, we can clearly see that in the song title appears LSD initials. Furthermore the lyrics "A girl with kaleidoscope eyes" seems to refer to psychedelic culture as well as distortions and hallucinations engendered by the use of LSD.
But this model of freedom which developed arts and fashion all over the world, primarily through music, has consequences. Despite the passage of the Dangerous Drugs Act 196714, the use of hard and soft drugs remained popular, and in 1968 the Wootton report on illicit drug use showed that there were approximately 300,000 regular and occasional drug consumers. According to other estimations, the amount was much bigger, since it was said that about 1 to 2 million British smoked marijuana during that period. In addition we see today that this law has had no incidents on drug use in the UK because while only 5% of the population took drugs in the 60s, the rate increased thereafter to reach 20% in the 1980s.
Moreover, even if AIDS was discovered in 1981, the 60s saw an increased rate of STD transmissions.