Submitted by Armen Hareyan on Apr 26th, 2006
Sex and Baby Boomers
Baby boomers have long been thought of as sexual revolutionaries. But University of Maryland Professor Robin Sawyer says that was just the beginning. While baby boomers led the sexual revolution of the late 50s and early 60s, the associate chair of Maryland's Department of Public and Community Health says that revolution was actually a subset of a much bigger generational change that included the music boomers listened to and the clothing they wore. But boomers are still best known for pushing sexual boundaries further than any previous generation.
In fact, Sawyer says the revolution really never stopped. "Today's 60 is yesterday's 40," he says. "Our sexuality has not ended." And he adds, "Boomers have an attitude that's very youthful, we are a positive generation. We ask 'Why shouldn't I?'"
Prof. Sawyer recently spoke with Newsdesk about sexuality and the baby boom generation. He says despite the positiveness, there are still sexual pitfalls on the horizon. "There is a 60 percent divorce rate," he says, "and many of those people have been married for a long time. Now they're single without skills to negotiate things like safe sex. The older age group has one of the fastest growing rates of HIV."
Sawyer also says that while the baby boomers helped change sexual mores, today's kids live in a more sexualized world than boomers could ever have imagined. "The imagery in ads from companies like Abercrombie and Fitch, and Victoria's Secret is basically soft porn. Rap lyrics and the music are very sexual - it's normalized. It's kind of scary in a sense," he says.
Source:
University of Meryland 