An exclusive poll on what Americans really think about sex
After at least a decade of the famous Sexual Revolution, it is often assumed that most Americans have entered a state known as the New Morality. It is a condition in which pleasure is the principle, living in sin is no sin, and more or less anything, between consenting adults, goes. Yet although some observers have proclaimed the revolution triumphant, new battles keep breaking out. Examples:
> In St. Paul, where Planned Parenthood opened a new headquarters and a clinic for abortions and birth control, the building was doused with gasoline and set afire earlier this year. Rebuilt, it now is being picketed daily. Says Tom Webber, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota: "They say the rosary here. They chant it in a circle on our front sidewalk. A nun even splashed our building with holy water. My life has been threatened a number of times, all in the name of a higher morality."
> Los Angeles, once in the vanguard of public hedonism, has imposed a temporary moratorium on new sex movie theaters, pornographic bookstores and massage parlors. Under the revised zoning rules, which were modeled on a Detroit ordinance that has been copied in a number of other cities, no such business may open within 1,000 feet of a similar business or within 500 feet of a residential area, school, church or park.
> In Atlanta, Judge William Alexander of the Fulton County State Court ordered Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, to stand trial on charges of disseminating obscene material. Flynt, who faces similar charges in neighboring Gwinnett County, is free on bail while appealing a seven- to 25-year sentence in Cincinnati. The new trials could mean added penalties of up to 17 years.
After an era of revolution, is a counterrevolution under way? Is it even possible that the revolution never really succeeded, that much of America watched the New Morality—voyeuristically—without abandoning the Old Morality? Recent years undeniably have brought major changes to America's social patterns, most notably a greater openness about sex and a greater acceptance of premarital sex, homosexuality and abortion. But young people who favor the new standards are still paying a high price in family conflicts, and conservative protesters are increasingly vociferous. On all sides there are doubts and misgivings.
Listen to a few people talking: "When I first told my parents I had a new roommate, they immediately knew what was going on," says Kathy Lance, 27, a graduate student in education, who has been living with a man in Lawrence, Kans., for the past year. "My mother's first words were, 'Don't do all the cooking and cleaning.' But she was very disappointed. She just feels that it's not really right. She likes to say things like, 'With your brains, you should be using your college education.' She would like for me to teach school, then get married and have children."