6.7 – COUNTERCULTURE Unit 6 – The Cold War and Culture

Section 7 – Counterculture

Learning Targets & Key Words

The Students Will

Be Able To

(TSWBAT):

• Define counter-

culture and

understand the

different

categories of

counter-culture

that existed in the

1960s and 70s

Key Words:

Counter-Culture

Feminism

Roe v. Wade

Hippy

Woodstock

Clean Air Act

Environmental Protection Agency

EQ: What is counter-culture?

How did the women’s

movement, hippy movement,

and the environmental

movement gain popularity?

Counterculture

• Def.: A way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norm.

1960s Counterculture:

• Experimentation in political activism, music, art, sexuality, drugs, and spirituality

• “Generation gap” between youth and their parents • Women’s rights, Hippy Movement,

Minority Rights, Environmentalism

I. WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Women’s Liberation Movement

• Women in the 1950s

• Denied basic human rights and

were trapped in the house

• Employment discrimination

• Feminism

• Def: The belief that men and

women should have equal rights

and opportunities

• Women came together to

organize activities to support

women’s rights and interest in the

1960s

Betty Friedan & The Feminine Mystique (1963)

• Early feminist book

• Credited with sparking the 2nd -wave of feminism

• Age of marriage was dropping, birth rate &

unhappiness of women increasing in the

1950s

• Women’s magazines/media created the idea of the

“feminine mystique” – the idea that women are

naturally fulfilled by devoting their lives to being

housewives and mothers

• Women should have CHOICES & no societal

expectations

• Calls for equal edu. & employment

“We can no longer ignore the voice within women that says: ‘I want

something more than my husband and my children and my home.’”

Equal Pay Act (1963)

• Law aimed at

ending wage

disparity based on

sex

• Signed by JFK (part

of the New Frontier

program)

National Organization for Women (NOW)

• Founded in 1966

• Betty Friedan was 1 of 28 founding

members

• Unified women’s rights movement

• Worked to get the ERA passed

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

• Originally written by Alice Paul & Crystal Eastman; first proposed in Congress in 1923

• Passed in in 1972

• Created equality under the law • Laws/rights cannot be denied based on sex

• Outlawed employment discrimination based on sex

Equal Rights Amendment

Title IX (1972)

• Law that required gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding

• Athletics, Access to Higher Education, Career Education, Education for Pregnant and Parenting Students, Employment, Learning Environment, Math and Science, Sexual Harassment, Standardized Testing and Technology

Advances in Birth Control

The Pill

• Approved by the FDA in 1960

Roe v. Wade (1973)

• Supreme Court rules that abortion is legal

• Relied upon the 14th amendment – right to privacy under the due process clause

• Abortion is legal, but states must regulate abortions

• Seen as liberating to women (similar effect of Margaret Sanger’s birth control movement)

• Prompted national debate that still continues today

Roe vs. Wade

Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life

II. THE RISE OF THE HIPPY

Hippies

• Term comes from being

“hip”

• Most valued freedom,

nature, intimacy, peace,

sharing, and spirituality

• Many were political

activists

• Women’s rights, Civil

Rights, Anti-Vietnam

Haight-Ashbury

Way of Life

• Distance from mainstream

culture • Often discarded possessions

• Distinct fashion • Flowing clothing, colorful, beads,

headbands, bellbottoms, tie-dye

• Beards, afros, longhair

• San Francisco and Haight

Ashbury • Birth place of the hippy movement

• Neighborhood in San Francisco

Woodstock

• August 15-17, 1969

• Music festival in NY • Meant to promote peace in a time of tension and war (Civil Rights, Vietnam)

• Famous artists of the day performed: • Jimi Hendrix, Santana, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, The Band, Janis Joplin, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, etc.

Country Joe’s Anti-Vietnam War Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Y0ekr-3So

Stop at 1:30

Jimi Hendrix plays the National Anthem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjzZh6-h9fM

CCR performs Born on the Bayou:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9KKo8mZ5Eo

Woodstock

Woodstock

1969

Drug Culture

• Drugs like marijuana and LSD

were a big part of the

hippy/counterculture movement.

• Using drugs made hippies

feel like the were rebelling

from mainstream society.

• Timothy Leary (a Harvard

professor) was an advocate of

LSD.

• LSD was created by a Swiss

scientist, used by the CIA, and

tested for use by psychiatrists

before it became illegal.

III. ENVIRONMENTALISM

Environmental Movement

• Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

• Book about the dangers of pollution in the

environment

• Criticized the use of DDT and other pesticides

• Earth Day (April 22)

• First started in 1970

• Meant to promote environmental awareness

(pollution, recycling, etc.)

• Clean Air Act

• 1st created in 1963; strengthened in 1970

• Established the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) to regulate pollution

Rachel Carson

Earth Day

Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA, ’70)

-Clean Air Act (’70)

-Clean Water Act (’73)

-Endangered Species Act (’73)

Love Canal

Superfund

Three Mile Island

Nuclear power

plant meltdown

Counter-Culture Flipbook

• EQ: Why was each part of the counter-culture movement of the 1960s significant?

• Using your textbook and your notes, you will create a flipbook to describe the significance of each part of the counter-culture movement of the 1960s

• Read the following sections to learn more about each movement: • P. 910-919 – Counterculture, Women’s Movement, Hippies,

Minority Rights (Farmers, Indians, etc.)

• P. 958-61 – Environmentalism