60s

The 1960s are often seen as a mix of peace & love and rock & roll, but  in reality it was a decade for and about freedom, including freedom of speech. Because of this, there were many changes to language use during the decade.

Research prior to the 60s, done by Margaret Meade, suggested that for the first time there was definitive evidence of ‘nurture’ over ruling ‘nature’ in a debate that had long plagued anthropologists, psychologists and sociologists alike. Her book ‘Coming of Age in Samoa’ seemed to have enlightened the world, and it finally made young people feel that they had choices in the way that they were going to live their lives. Young women, in particular, felt a new freedom in the way they could express their sexuality. In her book, Meade had talked a lot about the freedom of Samoan teens, and the lack of judgement that was made about young men and women who wanted to experiment with their own. For adolescent girls in the western world, this information was liberating and powerful.

Perhaps because of this change in power – young people were taking hold of their lives – and the newfound freedom that came with it, new words and phrases developed. The language evolved into something that allowed teens to express themselves, which is something they now realised was in their power to do.

The coined euphemism “birth control seats,” which was used to describe a car with bucket seats, demonstrates the changed attitude towards sex and perhaps even religion (as some religions prohibit the use of contraception). That sex and contraception were topics to be spoken openly about was new to the decade. They made new words, which were used equally by the sexes: love bite, hickey, make out, go all the way, score etc. The word score has undergone widening, having already had other meanings with connotations of sport, or being used synonymously for total or tally, or even mark making/cutting.

While the sixties may have made it more acceptable for girls to talk about sexuality and be more open about their own, sexist language was still coined – words like slut, skirt and skag (an ugly girl). “Slut” sort of underwent a semantic shift, first meaning a woman with “low standards of cleanliness” and then, in the sixties, a derogatory term for a woman “who has many casual sexual partners.”

And although people could be more open, lexis such as “queer” underwent pejoration and widening – it became both an insult, a way of calling something dorky, and derogatory slang word for homosexuals.

Many additions to language also now have connotations with the increased drug use during the decade. Words and phrases like: far-out, flower child, outta-sight, bitchin’ etc. “Bitchin’” has been clipped and “ing” has been affixed to the root word, bitch. Bitch already had different meanings – female dog (or wolf/fox/otter), an unpleasant woman, and its verb form – “to make spitefully critical comments”. In the sixties “bitch” underwent amelioration in its new, extended form, which meant good, great or awesome.

Words which are still used now and were considered “cool” to teens of the era – like the abstract noun “blast” (I had a blast) – are no longer seen as impressive to current adolescents, suggesting that in language change, it is the youth that have the most influence and impact.

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