I have often pondered the reason for the
explosion of sexual freedom and experimentation that I lived with and
enjoyed in the hippy era. For years I thought the reason for the
sexual experimentation was the large overhang of women in the baby boom
wave who were two years younger than the men. There were several
million more women one, two and three years younger than each male.
Now I think I was largely wrong.
The reason for the sex explosion was the absence of life path constraints. The hippies were young, lived with no responsibility, no plans in their personal life...just a universal belief that they and the people around them were going to remake the world into a new utopia.
It was the absence of responsibility and a life path that created the sexual freedom. The other places I've experienced the same license have been on a cruise ship and at college.