The Free Love Movement: Good or Bad for the Country?

By: Allyson Wiggs

During the 1960’s, a huge liberal change happened in response to the war that was occurring. There was a war in Vietnam as well as a war on poverty going on and the government could not afford to pay for both. The government put all their efforts into the war in Vietnam which led to the draft being started as well as a divide in the country. The divide mainly occurred in the younger generation because people either fled the country in order to avoid the draft, or held rallies in the streets to protest the war. The younger generation was also irritated by the constant racial issues and the materialistic ways of the country.[1] All of the anger that this generation felt led to what was known as the free love movement.

                The free love movement was an extremely liberal idea that occurred among the younger generations of the 60’s. This movement completely went against the normal culture by changing their hair, clothes, and interests. People started growing out their hair and wearing it all down rather than keeping up with it by fixing and/or cutting it. The clothing choices also changed by going from traditional to very brightly colored and carefree. Although these changes seemed drastic, the biggest change of all was the new interests of this generation. They began to get heavily involved with drugs and began to do as they pleased when it came to sexual partners. During this period LSD became a very commonly abused drug. This drug caused people to have hallucinations which enhanced all aspects of life. People’s sexual preferences also changed to being very liberal. People began realizing that they can have multiple sexual partners rather than just having one. They also realized sex was not only for marriage, but could be for anyone. Many people in this movement were known as hippies and accurately portrayed the stereotype of hippies that we have today.[2] Many of these rebellious activities that occurred on Haight and Ashbury Street in San Francisco, California seemed like fun at the time but they ended up causing serious consequences.

                Although these activities seemed like a great way to get the governments attention at the time, they ended up not being the best decision for many of the people involved. The drugs caused huge issues for the people taking them and all of the free sexual activities caused even bigger issues. These sexual activities caused venereal disease among people as well as other sexually transmitted diseases that had not been identified at this time. There was an also an issue with women performing their own abortions. With all of the sexual activities that were going on, very few women used protection and in turn became pregnant, but they did not want the child. This resulted in self-given abortions which cause even more problems for the women.[3]

                Even though this movement was a huge shock to many people and some of the consequences were not ideal, it is a time that can be reflected on and learned from. If all of these sexual encounters had not happened, we may not have learned about all of the sexually transmitted diseases that we know about now. So many diseases occurred during this time period that seemed unfortunate at the time, but now doctors have been able to learn from them and now know about much more than they did in the 60’s. This movement also showed the government that they have to take into consideration everyone’s concerns because if they don’t, a liberal backlash could occur. Overall, this time period of free love and peace seems like chaos to us now, but during the 60’s it was done for something they strongly believed in and it is now something that we can learn from and use to our benefit when it comes to understanding love and war.

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[1] “The 1960s,” History, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.history.com/topics/1960s.

[2] “Summer of Love and Woodstock,” The Civil War Museum, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.coldwar.org/articles/60s/summeroflove.asp.

[3] Brian Alexander, “Free Love: Was There a Price to Pay,” NBC News, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19053382/ns/health-sexual_health/t/free-love-was-there-price-pay/#.U14e8RbD-P8.