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Albert Kinsey Helped Change The American Public 's Preconceptions On Sexuality

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Essay Question #2 Albert Kinsey helped change the American Public’s preconceptions on sexuality by publishing two bestselling books from 1947 to 1953 on the topic. Titled “American Sexual Behavior” and “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female”, these books both confirmed and challenged the generally held beliefs dealing with marriage, sexual gratification, and sexual orientation. Sex was deemed important for a healthy marriage, adultery was frequent and homosexuals weren’t weird anomalies. Hugh Hefner, who founded Playboy Magazine, was a proponent of sexual freedom who began circulating his magazine in 1953 with Marilyn Monroe as his first centerfold model. Hefner capitalized on the changing attitudes on sex and parlayed them into a very profitable enterprise. A catalyst of that enterprise, Marilyn Monroe soon became the center of male fantasy. After posing nude in 1949 for fifty dollars, she quickly rose to stardom and eventually acted in many major movies. Betty Friedan was the author of the 1963 book “The Feminine Mystique”, a book that actually criticized its title. Feminine mystique was the idea that women primarily found purpose and satisfaction through marriage and motherhood. Friedan also founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966 as a means to gain female equality and rights. The group was moderate but had members with extreme views. Ti-Grace Atkinson and Susan Brownmiller were radical feminists that felt sexual relations with men should be terminated

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