The Class of `65 was among the first of its generation to march in the front lines of the sexual revolution. The women had their first sex at an average age of 19.8; the men at just under 17. On this score, they are not much different from their predecessors of `60. But if their behavior still seems relatively traditional, their attitudes regarding sexual behavior have actually changed. When the women of `60 were asked to recall their beliefs in `60 about virginity, 74 percent said they felt then that they should be virgins before marriage. Five years later, only 56 percent of the women of `65 then shared that conviction.
But virginity, for all its mixed emotions, may not have been the real issue. The teenage angst arising from that concern actually hid the real problem-the ”double standard.” In the Class of `60, 27 percent of the women said they believed then that premarital sex was ”all right for men but wrong for women.” In the Class of `65 only 8 percent of the women still held this belief. Today, as adults, nearly three-quarters of the Class of `65 say they have come to believe that premarital sex is OK. About 12 percent say they still consider it wrong, as did a nearly identical group in the Class of `60. But while 23 percent of the Class of `60 still said in 1985 that premarital sex was right for men but wrong for women, less than 1 percent of the Class of `65 still hold this view. The real casualty of the sexual revolution may not have been virginity or sexual restraint in general but the double standard.
This helps explain why the number of unmarried couples living together increased by more than 100 percent from the Class of `60 to that of `65. And, also, why the divorce rate is lower. And although a third of the women and half the men of the Class of `65 have indulged in at least one ”one-night stand,” both have had slightly fewer extramarital affairs than their counterparts in the more ”traditional” Class of `60. By and large, the `65 pattern of sexual behavior is not unusual. Twenty-four percent of the women have had only one sexual partner in their life, and so have 12 percent of the men.
Someone in the Class of `65 claims to have had 200 or more sexual partners, but nearly half of the class fall in the 2-to-10-partners category, and the average for the class is 16 partners by age 42, a figure that corresponds almost exactly with that found by a 1985 Esquire magazine survey of 1,500 American leaders under age 40. More specifically, the women have had an average of 12 partners; the men, 20. The mean figures are 4 for the women and 7 for the men. Women who have done graduate study have had more partners than those who haven`t. Lawyers average 17, and those with MBA degrees top the average at 50. Men with graduate degrees, oddly enough, tend to fall below the average for men in general.
More than 7 percent of the `65 class have had a homosexual or lesbian experience, with the women outnumbering the men in this regard by three to one. But only 3 percent now identify themselves as homosexual/lesbian, with the women again outnumbering the men by two to one. As a group, this homosexual/lesbian contingent has been among the most politically active, its involvement dating back to the civil-rights and anti-war movements of the
`60s. The few of this class who have been fined or imprisoned for political protest are all gay. None of them, however, identified themselves as gay when they were in high school. More than 38 percent of the whole class say they know someone who has or had AIDS.
Cultural and political values
The Class of `65 stands squarely in the center of the political spectrum. But the women, many of whom have been actively supporting various women`s issues for the last 20 to 25 years, are predominantly to the left of the men. A third of the men but only less than a fifth of the women identify themselves as politically ”conservative” or ”very conservative.” On the other hand, 50 percent of the women but only 37 percent of the men see themselves as
”liberal,” ”very liberal” or ”radical.” By contrast, the Class of `60 had 50 percent more women in the ”middle of the road” category than the Class of `65. Party affiliations have followed suit: In the Class of `60, 46 percent of the men and 45 percent of the women said they were Republicans; in `65, 46 percent of the men but only 23 percent of the women say they are Republicans.
This shift of political attitude among the women is perhaps not too surprising, considering that they are part of the generation that rejected the ”Organization Man,” rebelled against social conformity and invented a counterculture whose golden rule was, ”Do your own thing.” In the Class of
`65, 29 percent-versus only 9 percent in `60-were ”hippies”; 43 percent-versus 19 percent in `60-attended rock festivals; 72 percent smoked pot and 16 percent used LSD-versus 56 percent and 4 percent, respectively, in `60.
(Apart from the 6 percent that have either received or considered getting treatment for alcoholism, virtually none has ever needed medical help for a drug problem.)
When asked if the National Endowment for the Arts should be prohibited by law from supporting work ”that some may consider morally offensive or pornographic,” 63 percent of the Class of `65 answer ”no.” To the idea of a constitutional amendment to outlaw flag-burning, 65 percent say ”opposed.”
And 66 percent say that prayers belong in churches, not public schools.
As for abortion, 86 percent of the `65 women identify themselves as
”pro-choice,” a slight increase from the 83 percent of the `60 women. Only 9 percent of the `65 women are on the ”pro-life” side, a figure that basically is unchanged from 1960. What has changed, and noticeably so, is the number of the men who are ”pro-choice”-from 70 percent in `60 to 81 percent in `65.
More than a third of the class have consulted a psychiatrist or psychologist for an extended period. More women than men-28 percent to 17 percent-have participated in encounter groups. A quarter of the class have experimented with ”human potential” programs.
A quarter of the class say they are attending weekly church services. About 60 percent attend church only on holidays, however, or don`t go at all. To a question asking if a religious conversion has ”significantly changed your life,” more than a few volunteer the remark that their conversions were ”spiritual” in nature and had nothing to do with any church. One converted to Buddhism; another awakened to ”native American” paganism.
As for the all-important issue of the war in Vietnam, the linchpin behind so much of what we`ve talked about so far, it is not surprising that 72 percent of the Class of `65 say they opposed it and nearly 40 percent actively demonstrated against it. What is surprising is that in the Class of `60, only 43 percent said they opposed the war and 13.5 percent demonstrated against it. Though only five years separate them in age, the two classes are a generation apart in their views on this highly charged episode in American history.
Every war has its heroes and villains, so almost as an afterthought, the Class of `65 was asked to name those whom they regarded as the heroes of the Vietnam era. (One percent of the women and a third of the men have seen military service, and 12 percent went to Vietnam, with 10 percent of them seeing combat.) About 54 percent named the soldiers who served in the war, and 2 percent singled out the civilian supporters of the war. But to 50 percent of the men and 49 percent of the women, their heroes were those who protested the war.
Some 20 years after the height of the war, those who refused to fight in that war have apparently drawn nearly equal in public esteem as those who did fight. Just last spring, the nation`s first monument to those who protested against the Vietnam War was dedicated on the campus of Kent State University, the site of one of the more memorable of the anti-war demonstrations.
A similar monument to dissent would be a fitting symbol of the New Trier Class of `65-and the generation they represent, at least in part. Surely, there is still much of this spirit-of dissent, of independence-simmering in their lives as they go about the routine business of life-making a living, raising children and responding to change.
