The Pursuit of Sexual Pleasure.

By the 1940s many Americans had adopted liberal attitudes toward heterosexual activity. They affirmed heterosexual pleasure as a good in itself, defined sexual satisfaction as a basic component of personal happiness and successful marriage, and accepted youthful sexual experimentation as preparation for adulthood. This new liberalism was solidified by the growing availability in the 1930s and 1940s of reliable contraceptives that separated sex from reproduction, allowing uninhibited pursuit of sexual pleasure. Sexual content appeared in movies and magazines with greater frequency as an emerging youth culture celebrated heterosexual expression, and husbands and wives came to view continuing erotic pleasure as a major component of marriage.

Sex and War.

The war also contributed to liberalized attitudes toward sex. Lonely soldiers away from home engaged in sexual experimentation, and...