ABSTRACT
T hree events marked 1973 as the watershed of the sexual revolution. First, the television documentary An American Family allowed the nation to witness the implosion of the postwar domestic ideal. Second, the publication of two erotic books by women claimed to repeal the last taboos on female sexual self-expression. Finally, the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade decriminalized abortion. Together these three events fundamentally altered the national conversation about sexuality and led to new possibilities in personal autonomy. They also marked a critical convergence of American values: the fierce belief in independence and personal happiness, the commitment to equality and opportunity for all (at least in theory), and the nearly unshakable trust in science and technology. But these three events would also help reignite long-standing American fears: the fear of anarchy and disunion, the fear of manly women and effeminate men, and the fear of an amoral world governed by the whimsical laws of supply and demand in which a human life becomes only as valuable as the profit it will bring to others.
