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Notes -
If you read stories from the period (I'm thinking of one SF short story which I can't remember the title of or who wrote it in particular), there's a lot of resentment by men about being trapped by women into marriage and babies instead of being free to wander and love who they will as they will. A lot of "men are meant to be brave pioneers, not tied down to a home and family" guff. I'm also thinking of that terrible song Lydia from the 70s where the guy comes back to the woman when he needs a place to stay/sex, then leaves again and she just lets him go and accepts him back, no demands, no ultimatum about "leave this time and we're through".
That was the ideal presented for both men and women: perfect freedom, able to explore and find yourself and live your own life without expectations or obligations to others. The woman's side of that was Young Hearts Run Free and it was the same notion of entrapment: you're stuck at home with the babies, he's running around cheating on you, better for young lovers never to be tied down the same way but be free.
Turns out that who knew, emotions and sex and love were full of drama anyway! Free love didn't solve all the problems like it was supposed to do!
Admittedly it's rank tinfoilhattery on my part, but I can't help but see these sort of media as anything other than deliberate psy-ops at this point, rather than an earnest expression of what was going through people's heads at the time.
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