Rebellion

This is Charisse.

America, while known for its many freedoms, has always been a rather restrictive nation. The inability to truly separate church and state has led to many battles over freedom of speech and expression as well as censorship. The chapter, “America Undressed” from the book 1969 begins, “Was 1969 the first X-rated year?”  The author goes on to write about the emergence of nudity and pornography in literature and film. I was tempted to agree that 1969 was the year that indecency came into style, but as I thought about it I realized that while there was an increase in public allowance of previously prohibited images and text, the acceptance of these things did not really increase.

Pornography has always existed. People have hung it up as artwork, stuffed into a closet where no one else would find it, and others have published it widely in an attempt to make a profit from it. 1969 was the beginning of certain extremes of pornography being made available to the public at large, but I am not sure that this was because of a shift in the way people thought about pornography. Instead, I would argue that 1969 was the first year that people began to take advantage of their freedom of speech and expression.

The infamous Woodstock music festival provides a perfect example.  The producers of the festival had to switch venues three times because surrounding communities did not want to be subjected to the dangers of a rock and roll concert. Alcohol, drugs, and nudity were all feared by locals. Woodstock happened because one community finally accepted the artists, but how many others would have accepted them? The events of 1969 do not exactly reflect a changing acceptance of indecency; instead it shows that the few people that believed in their right to express themselves in whatever way they pleased were finally ready to push through the system of repression that controlled America.