The sexual revolution was supposed to liberate women from oppressive social restrictions on what they did with their bodies.
It was largely successful in its campaign to divorce sexuality from marriage and childbearing. But in the culture of our post-revolution world, we have begun to see why such restrictions existed and the adverse effects of removing them.
For time immemorial, in order to obtain sexual pleasure in a way condoned by society, men had to submit to a monogamous union. Admittedly, monogamy has always been a high standard, and extramarital affairs have been going on as long as marriage.
Now that sex is divorced from marriage, which entails a comparatively long period of relationship-building prior to consummation, a woman can become a mere object in the minds of men, something to be manipulated, tricked or forced into giving the man what he wants.
This objectification of women is rampant in our culture and leads to an even more dangerous state of mind — that of viewing sexual relationships as a masculine conquest. Our society, tolerant as it is of the hookup culture, tends to draw a line here and censure those men who publicly express their views of conquest.
For instance, the two owners of Waking Life Espresso, a popular coffee shop in Asheville, North Carolina, for years ran an anonymous blog detailing their sexual exploits in a viciously misogynistic fashion. When they were found out recently, the outcry was so great that they were forced to shut down, despite apologizing publicly.
What we must address, however, is that such moral filth is the natural outgrowth of our culture’s attitudes about sex. We cannot rid ourselves of these prevalent attitudes about sex as a conquest until we deal with the root of such thought and behavior.
As long as our society continues to reinforce this demeaning view of women by standards of dress and behavior, portrayals in the media and pornography, the ancient and vile specter of misogyny will continue to rear its ugly head. But societal conventions will only be changed when enough individuals buck those norms.
With that in mind, let me give a word to both sexes: women, be conscious that objectification runs rampant, and men, be vigilant to ensure you view each and every woman you meet as a person as inherently valuable and worthy of respect as yourself, not as a sexual object. Combating misogyny begins today, with each of us.