Why Don t You Take Your Dress Off and Fight Like a Man? Homosexuality and the 1960s Crisis of Masculinity in The Gay Deceivers

Abstract

This article discusses the new view on sexuality observed in the 1960s. During the 1960s, it seemed like everything has changed. The youth culture shook up the status quo of the United States with its investiture in the counterculture, drugs and rock and roll. Students turned their universities upside-down with the spirit of protest as they fought for free speech and equality and against the Vietnam War. Many previously ignored groups, such as African Americans and women, stood up for their rights. Radical politics began to challenge the primacy of the staid old national parties. "The Kids" were now in charge, and the traditional social and cultural roles were being challenged. Everything old was old-fashioned, and the future had never seemed more unknown. Nowhere was this spirit of youthful metamorphosis more obvious than in the transformation of views of sexuality. In the 1960s sexuality was finally removed from its private closet and celebrated in the public sphere. Much of the nation latched onto this new feeling of openness and freedom toward sexual expression.