18.6: Cultural Movements

The cultural and social impact of the postwar was the global youth movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Those babies born between 1946-1964 are referred to as the Baby Boom generation. Because of their high numbers and the relative prosperity of the economy during their careers, the baby boomers are an economically influential generation. In addition, enormous numbers of young people from middle-class or even working-class backgrounds became the first in their families to ever attend universities. Meanwhile, the political climate of the Cold War and decolonization contributed to an explosion of discontent that reached its height in the late 1960s, especially among this generation.

Youth Movements

There were essentially two distinct, but closely related, paths of the youth movement:

• a largely apolitical counterculture of so-called “hippies” (a term of belittlement invented by the mainstream press)
• an active protest movement against various forms of perceived injustice

Of course, many young people were active in both aspects, listening to folk music or rock n’ roll, experimenting with the various drugs that became increasingly common and available, but also joining in the anti-war movement, the second-wave feminist movement, or other forms of protest.

Figure 14.4.1: The album cover from The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967. An iconic expression of the youth culture of the day, the individuals pictured behind the band members include everyone from their fellow musical pioneer Bob Dylan to the “godfather of the beat generation,” William S. Burroughs, to the Beatles’ younger selves (on the left).

In the 1960s, in Western society, there were more highly-educated young people than ever before. Far more young people from non-elite backgrounds completed secondary schools and enrolled in universities. In turn, it was often college students who formed the core of the politicized youth movement. By being taught to think critically, be globally aware, and well informed, many students seriously critiqued their own society's values, some of which they felt were outdated.

The Vietnam War was a key factor in the U.S. youth movement. According to some members, despite Soviet control of the Eastern Bloc, the U.S. government was a much more visible oppressor than was the Soviet Union. U.S. atrocities in Vietnam were perceived as visible proof of the oppressive nature of capitalism and imperialism. Thus, Vietnam served as a symbolic rallying point for the youth movement the world over, not just in the United States itself.

Elements of the youth movement and the New Left came to champion aspects of social justice. In the United States, many members campaigned for the end of both racist laws and the inherent racism of American culture. A new feminist movement emerged to champion women’s rights, argue against the oppression of women, and advocate for LGBTQ rights.

In May 1968, the youth movement reached its zenith. From Europe to Mexico, enormous uprisings led mostly by college students temporarily paralyzed universities, infrastructure, and even whole countries. One example began in the suburb of Paris called Nanterre. There, the newly-opened and poorly-designed university faced student protests over a policy forbidding male students to visit female dormitories. When a student leader was arrested, sympathetic students in Paris occupied the oldest university in France: the Sorbonne. Soon, the entire Latin Quarter of Paris was taken over by thousands of students (many of whom lived outside of Paris). Buildings were wallpapered with posters calling for revolution. Street battles engaged riot police. In support of the students, French workers went on strike. At its height, French infrastructure itself was largely paralyzed.

Figure 14.4.2: Leftist workers outside of their occupied factory during the Events of May.

As the strikes and occupations dragged on, public opinion drifted away from the uprisings. By late June, workers accepted significant concessions from business owners in return for calling off the strike. The students finally agreed to leave the occupied universities. In the aftermath, major changes did come to French universities and high schools. This event marked the beginning of the democratization of education itself, with students having the right to meet with professors, question grading policies, and demand quality education in general. Likewise, and not just in France, rules and policies associated with gender and sexuality within schools and universities were slowly relaxed over time.

The “Events of May” were the emblematic high point of the European youth movement itself. The “thirty glorious years” of the postwar economic boom ended in the early 1970s, and the optimism of the youth movement tended to ebb along with it. Likewise, the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, while welcomed by the youth movement, did rob the movement of its most significant cause: opposition to the war.

Second-Wave Feminism

In the late 1960s, second-wave feminism emerged. In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir wrote an enormous (over 1,000 pages long) book about the status of women in Western societies. Titled The Second Sex, the book argued that throughout the entire history of Western Civilization, women had been the social and cultural "other”. In other words, when men wrote about "human history" they were actually writing about the history of men, with women lurking somewhere in the background, having babies and providing domestic labor. (In English, consider phrases like “since the dawn of mankind” or “man’s relationship with nature” - the implication is that men are the species). Historically, almost every state, empire, and nation had been controlled by men, and women were legal and political non-entities.

In the postwar period, many women were dissatisfied and unhappy with social roles, overtly sexist laws, and oppressive cultural codes. To cite a few examples, it was perfectly legal for flight attendants (“stewardesses” in the parlance of the time) to be fired at the age of 30. They were considered too old to maintain the standards of attractiveness enforced by airlines. Pregnancy was also grounds for losing one's job. Unmarried women were generally paid far less than men since it was assumed they would eventually marry and quit their jobs. White women in the United States made 60% of the earnings of men doing the same work, with black women earning a mere 42%. Domestic violence remained commonplace. In short, while the first-wave feminist movement had succeeded in winning key legal battles, a vast web of sexist laws and cultural codes ensured that women were held in precisely the “secondary” position identified by Beauvoir.

Starting in the mid-1960s, the second-wave feminist movement came into existence to combat precisely these forms of both legal and cultural oppression and discrimination. The French Women's Liberation Movement emerged. Likewise, in the United States, the so-called "Women's Lib" movement gained members.

Figure 14.4.3: Members of the (American) Women’s Liberation Movement marching in 1970.

The goals of second-wave feminism were to create laws that

• expressly forbid sexual discrimination in the workplace and schools
• promote a broader cultural shift that saw women treated as true social equals of men

For second-wave feminists, the movement was not simply about women having access to the same forms of employment and equal wages as men, but about attacking the sexual objectification and double standards to which women were held. For instance, why were promiscuous women the subject of shaming and mockery, while promiscuous men were celebrated for their virility?

While the battle for sexual equality is obviously far from over, second-wave feminism did achieve many important goals. Legally, many countries adopted laws banning discrimination based on gender itself, as well as age and appearance. Laws pertaining to both sexual assault and domestic violence were often strengthened and more stringently enforced. Culturally, sexual double standards, the objectification of women, and prescribed female social roles were all called into question. Eventually, a third and fourth wave of feminism would emerge. You'll learn about these events in later chapters.