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The Changing Face of theAmerican Family: Modern History

time for young people to be heard.(see
Sidebars 3.4 and 3.5)“We’re the young
generation,and we’ve got something to
say,”sang the free-spirited Monkees in
their TV theme song (Boyce & Hart,
1966).Other musicians,such as Joan Baez
and Bob Dylan,probed deeper themes of
rebellion and anti-war sentiment.Young
people in the sixties did speak out against
the“establishment.”Sometimes they used
radical methods to achieve their goals.
Civil rights demonstrations and protests
against the war inVietnam often turned
violent.However,this era of rebelliousness
also ushered in a focus on“rights”: groups
which championed black power,students’
rights,women’s rights,homosexuals’
rights,Native-Americans’rights,and an
emphasis on environmental protection.

Menandwomenbeganexperimenting

withnewgenderroleswhichblurredthe

boundariesbetween masculine and

feminine behavior.There were attempts to

equalize the roles of men and women and

to eliminate traditional marriage vows in

an effort to create more personal or sexual

freedom within marriage.By the 1970s,

homosexuals were publicly proclaiming

their right to same-sex unions based on

traditional marriage models or new

models involving more autonomy.Thirty-

five years later,these same debates

continue without resolution.Communal

alternatives to marriage,open marriages,

and same-sex unions all challenged the

traditional marriage ideal of the 1950s by

rejecting the materialism of the suburban

lifestyle and experimenting with non-

nuclear family forms.

By the 1970s homosexuals were publicly

proclaiming their right to same-sex unions

based on traditional marriage models.

SIDEBAR3.5

THEBEATCULTURE

The Bomb, the Cold War, “mutual, assured

destruction,” the Korean War, Communism,

McCarthyism, loyalty oaths, the Hollywood

blacklist,theRosenbergs,the“militaryindustrial

complex,” Sputnik, suburbia, television, James

Dean,Charlie“Bird”Parker,bebop jazz,rock ’n

roll, civil rights, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Little

Rock,MartinLutherKing,Jr.,MalcolmX,Lenny

Bruce,BobDylan,TimothyLeary,andVietnam.

These people and phenomena associated with

the post-World War II era, termed the Beat

Generation,helpedtoshapeanaestheticshared

bythediversegroupof writersandvisualartists

whobecameknown asthebeat [culture].

Source:Ginsberg,1996.

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