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After World War Ⅱ, a series of movements, which were the American Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Liberation Movement, the Counterculture Movement and so on, shook the old ideology. Extreme inpidualism arose in America resulting in the Trust Crisis of American system after the Great Depression, the Vietnam War, Watergate Affair and large-scale democratic movement. It wasn’t restricted to any external factor. Moreover, in Extreme inpidualism, the meaning of personal life is to do what people like. Therefore, inpidualism in this period exhibited the negative and decadent side.
Extreme inpidualism was in vogue until the late of 1980s. After the Cold War, there were a lot of social problems forcing Americans to reexamine the relationship between personal value and social benefit. People still attached importance to the achievement of personal value, self-respect, self-reliance and self-improvement. But meanwhile, most Americans could consider other’s benefits above theirs in some situations.
Although American inpidualism went through many stages, the core of inpidualism never changed. That is the pursuit of freedom, human rights, self-reliance and equality. Modern American people not only inherit the tradition, but also promote the idea of inpidualism. No matter what things they do, they always keep to its principle. Inpidualism is regarded as the most distinct characteristics of America.
2.1.2 American Sexual Concept
The theories of the modern sexual science affected the Sexual Revolution. Moreover, at that time, the economic prosperity in American society changed people’s life style to a large extent. The desire for material and enjoyment was stronger than ever.
In the 20th century, the premarital sex happened frequently, and Women’s Liberation Movement further developed. Women had the courage to fight for the sexual freedom. People had no worries about sex due to the legalization of oral contraceptive and abortion. Therefore, to many women, sexual activities became unfettered and permissive. Furthermore, the development of technology propelled the progress of media industry. The things about sex were spread over quickly and had a great influence on American society.
People think that love is not only spiritual but also carnal. If people fall in love, sexual activity should be a part of it. It is beyond all reasons that people should avoid the things about sex before marriage. People could have sex not until they get married. Premarital sex is a significant way to thoroughly understand which person is a right partner. For most people, they think that sexual activity gives a boost to love to be more intimate and joyous. As Li Qingming states in his book, it is normal for a couple to have sex which is a physiological requirement and an intimate behavior. However, even though two persons don’t love each other or they are just strangers, they still could have sex on impulse. Sex isn’t the equivalent to love. (2007:138) At this point, sex is no longer the only thing between married people.
America is the origin of the Sexual Revolution. American attitudes to love and marriage owe deeply to the influence of the Sexual Revolution.
2.1.3 American Family Value
Because of the difference of the western and eastern cultures, the American family type differs from that of the Chinese. Seen from the fact, it is not difficult to realize that Americans prefer to have a family like nuclear family, so the proportion of nuclear family in American society is very large. For Americans advocating the idea of inpidualism, they want to be independent and self-reliant, so many Americans tend to live only with the husband or the wife and children. Their parents rarely live with their married sons, daughters and grandchildren in the same home. Kohls pointes out that with a strong sense of inpiduality, family ties in America are relatively weak, especially when compared with the rest of the world (2001: 90). As Kohls says, American family members are not very close to each other. They live almost as an unattached unit in society maintaining their own independence.