With the reins of religion loosening, I believe that our society is in the midst of a sexual revolution. From its humble beginnings in the ’60′s, today it has come to a full blossom.

Now-a-days it is common for premarital sex, multiple partners, partners of the same gender, etc. These trends in sexuality are starting to become openly excepted in society. People are starting to learn that there is nothing wrong with experimenting with your sexuality. How else would you know what you like/want, if you don’t try it?

Many people have also found pleasure with adult toys either with their partner or alone. People who believe they are bi-sexual can have their partner pleasure them as either a male or female, whichever they prefer at the time of intercourse with certain toys on the market today.

With the advancements made in the medical field today, you can even change your sexuality. If you feel as though you were supposed to be male or female there are many options available to you that weren’t around in the 1950′s.

Many people are also becoming more sexually liberated through use of medication. Not only through the use of birth control, but now you can have sex into your later years with pills such as Viagra, etc.

With so many advancements in the field of sexual liberation, I believe our society has come along way from its humble beginnings. From this point, I believe things can only get better!

Many women had a very hard time finding a man that was willing to wait for marriage to have sex. Young women also experience peer pressure to engage in sexual acts. Abstinence is particularly hard to engage in these days and really no longer a viable option.

With the advent of the many methods of birth control today, one of the major hazards of sexual intercourse has been alleviated for the most part; that being becoming pregnant with an unwanted child.

Although there are many draw backs to birth control. Depending on the method chosen, each carries many side effects. I have tried several methods and found that all (even low dose) have major hormonal side effects, and made me extremely prone to heat stroke/ exhaustion.

It has been said that the change in hormones from birth control use can cause women to change their feelings about their partners.  One moment they can be madly in love with their partner, and after begining to take birth control can fall out of love with them.

Not to mention that some people link birth control to a rise in promiscuity. Which has many side effects of its own. Nevertheless, I believe the advent of birth control is a much needed tool for young women that would like to plan for parenthood.

Many women felt overwhelmed with their roles: mother (to several infants in diapers at once), maintaining the household, and keeping the man of the house happy.  They felt tired and under appreciated.  They went to see a doctor about their depression and were prescribed “diet pills” (nothing more then speed).  These “diet pills” enabled the wife to happily carry out her daily duties.

Once these “diet pills” were found out to be what they really were, some other solution had to be found.

And what luck!  With our friends at the pharmaceutical companies, we have several options available to us today!  We have a mass market of anti-depressants, herbal “speed”, anxiety medications, caffeine drinks, etc.   With all these glorious options, people can run themselves to death with a smile on their faces.

These days, both men and women share the roles of provider and nurturer. This has changed the way we perceive a relationship. Both members in a relationship must be partners. They must be able to provide and depend on one another for support.

When, and if they do decide to raise a family, they must take turns sharing the burden of raising a child. No longer does it just fall to the women, but the man as well. No longer does the burden of providing for the family fall to just the man, but also the woman.

Everything in a relationship these days is shared: every responsibility, every burden, every joy, every moment. I believe the evolution of the relationship is heading in the right direction.

First, a young man must ask a young ladies parents if it was ok that he see her. If the parents agreed, then they would give him a candle. As long a the candle burned he could court the young lady. As soon as the candle burned out, he had to leave. Depending on how much the parents liked the young man, the larger candle he would receive each time he called.

Now-a-days, there is no candle. Permission is not obtained, and really the parents dont’ have much say.

The traditions of the past no longer apply, and I believe we have lost something here. With the rise of one night stands, teen-pregnancies, and promiscuity, something has got to give. Parent’s have experience, and the fact that these experiences are no longer consulted (or given) leads to many of the problems we see today in the dating world.

This leaves us with the problem of having many ex-boyfriends/girlfriends, and how to deal with them. I have found this to be increasingly hard to deal with.

Example: My ex and I had recently put things behind us and were trying to maintain a friendship. We both have significant others and had introduced them to one another. My ex and I went out on occasion, and always had a blast. Recently, we went to a show, and he brang his girlfriend. He didn’t tell me he was bringing her, and the whole night was really uncomfortable. I tried to play nice, but she just gave me an evil eye. The night was a total bust. While on the other hand, my boyfriend and ex get along quite well.

Why is it that most women are jealous of their boyfriend/girlfriend’s past lovers? I thought that now-a-days it is imparitive to remain close to those you once cared about. If they earned a place in your heart at one time, there had to be something special about that person. I think it is important to keep those people in your life.

Back in the day, Homosexuality was looked at as a mental disorder and a criminal offense. The movement only started in the 1920′s, and has met with a lot of adversity. The movement really caught attention after the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village. From then on, an eye is focused on the movement. Victories are coming around every turn, although it is still an up hill battle.

The fight for Gay “Marriage” has been fought out in my life time. I have seen the joy and the tears of many of my friends over this definition war. Many people base their lives around being able to get married to the love of their lives, and move to where ever they can.

A few states now recognize same-sex unions. But none have called these unions a marriage. They define a marriage as a heterosexual term.

I believe that if someone, despite their sexual orientation, wants to “marry” another person, by all means they should have the right to do so. I don’t know why there are two different terms for people who want to spend their lives together, I think that is ridiculous. I think that people just want to be able to look down their noses at a gay “union,” and not say their not “married.”

But with time comes change, and hopefully people will realize just how silly this fight over a definition really is, and how many wonderful people are being hurt,and discriminated against over it.  If we quit drawing this imaginary line between people, then the discrimination would eventually stop, and that would really be something.

Is it because divorces are so easy to get? Or possibly the advent of the prenuptual agreement, which I basically see as big red flag. One person in the relationship has at least considered that the relationship is going to flounder. So, why get married at all if you have to have a prenuptual agreement?

Perhaps, if it were harder to get married or harder to get a divorce the sanctity of marriage would be more “sacred.” What if marriage was until death do u part, no loop holes, one time deal (if that were the case I’m sure murder rates may soar). Don’t you think more people would put alittle more thought into the decision, instead of just jumping into marriage spontaneously?

I think that there needs to be a re-tooling of sorts when it comes to how easily we enter into and out of a bond that is supposed to last “forever.” Divorces are painful for everyone involved, and I believe not necessary if marriages were looked at alittle differently. There is no rush to get married! If two people are going to be together, then whats wrong with just living together? You can share your lives with someone else, without having that magical binding legal document.

     I believe in spreading the genes apart as much as possible, and find joy in the fact that people are now willing to overlook racial barriers that might have barred them from finding their soul mate.

Now-a-days, programming is a bit more risque than “I Love Lucy,” and relationships of the this time face more hardships. With each member of the family now having to be educated and able to support themselves independently. People seem to have less time for one another. When viewed through the media we see alot of programming dealing with divorces, sleeping around, and open relationships. I believe this greatly influences the way in which many people go about having a “normal” relationship. They take the concepts of having a relationship as temporary. Where in the days of “I Love Lucy,” the idea of a relationship was a bit more permanent (at least for the show, the main characters actually got divorced I believe). Some would say that the media is only a represntation of the ideas already present in society, but it also reinforces and spreads these ideas through the generations. All in all, I feel that the media plays an influential role in how people act in a relationship, and that it play a primary role in the development of relationships in the years to come.