Permissive society

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (October 2007)

The permissive society is a label given to a society where social norms are becoming increasingly liberal. This usually accompanies a change in what is considered deviant. An extreme of permissiveness would be a society that has few moral codes beyond "do not harm others". Aspects that often change as a society becomes more permissive:

Sexual `freedom` increases. This includes the freedom to take part in sexual activities which are not the norm, such as BDSM and fetishes, as well as sexual orientations that have been frowned upon in the past, such as homosexuality and bisexuality.
Freedom to view violent and sexual material including movies, music, art and literature increases, and censorship of these and other arts decreases.
The power of religious groups decreases, often accompanied by a rising secularism.

Though some view permissiveness as a good thing, social conservatives claim the past was better, in that it involved fewer divorces, lower rates of teen pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and so on. In America, campaigns such as the Moral Majority movement have taken this view, similar campaigns are not very common in Europe.

Others answer that these things were outcomes of repressiveness, which had other downsides (for example that women could not divorce bad husbands because they did not have independent income). In America, such organizations as the National Organization for Women have taken this view