Permissive society

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".

Related Topics:
Liberal - Deviant

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Aspects that often change as a society becomes more permissive:

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• 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, bisexuality and swinging.
• Freedom to view violent and sexual material including movies, music, art and literature increases, and censorship decreases.
• The power of religious groups decreases, often accompanied by a rising secularism.

Permissiveness is not always viewed as a good thing. Some claim the past was "better", in that it involved fewer divorces, lower rates of teen pregnancy and so on. 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).

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Permissive society: See also ►