The Sexual Revolution in the Sixties: A Critical Reflection on its Patriarchal Drift

Abstract

The paper undertakes a critical review from a feminist standpoint of the so called Sexual Revolution in the sixties. In first place, the contributions of significant authors such as Kate Millet and Sulamith Firestone are reconstructed. These two authors already highlighted the patriarchal and capitalist bias of the new sexual normative and stated that a 'halfway' liberation could mean women's bodies being treated even more as objects and commodities. Secondly, this article describes the hard struggle for redefining sexuality that took place after the 80's. The constitution of an anti-pornography and anti-prostitution front and its defeat by the new neoliberal view of sexuality; and it finally claims for the return to a critical approach regarding some of the present consequences of the patriarchal drift of the sexual revolution.