During 1900, rapid industrialization of America had just started to create a vast middle and upper class citizens.
For the first time in history American people had freedom to pursue various form of happiness. Within 1900s to 1950s, modern culture had slowly started to enter into America.
In 1960s, a new group of young, long-haired and wild people came into existence in San Francisco, California. Soon they started to spread throughout the rest of the country.
Hippies also known as hippy-a were usually young person who rejected the mores of society and advocated a nonviolent ethic.
Hippies came from the middle-class, rejecting the older generation rules, and rebelling against the ideal of work and ambition.
During 1960s, hippies felt alienated from middle-class society which was pre-dominated by materialism and repression. Hence, they started to develop their own distinctive lifestyle.
Not only distinctive life, but hippies had they own style and culture to exist in the society.
Characteristics of Hippies
They favored long hair and casual, often unconventional dress with varieties of colors. Many males grew beards, both men and women wore sandals and beads.
Long flowing granny dressed were popular with the women, and rimless granny glasses with both men and women.
Hippies commonly took up communal or cooperative living arrangements with vegetarian diets based on unprocessed foods and practiced holistic medicine.
They were dropouts of the society, forgoing regular jobs and careers. Although some of the hippies developed small businesses that catered to other hippies.
Hippies created their own counterculture that revolved around free love, peace, drugs and music.
They were non-violent and turned to drugs and music to rebel and feel the freedom of a new experience.
Hippies advocated love, a popular phrase being “Make love, not war”, for which they were sometimes called “flower children”.
They promoted openness and tolerance as alternatives to the restrictions and regimentation they saw in middle-class society.
Hippies often practiced open sexual relationships and lived in various types of family and groups. They seemed healthier, more organic food to eat, contrary to the manufactured.
Revolution of Hippies
After President Kennedy’s assassination and the Vietnam War in 1968, the Civil Rights Movement, the hippies movement came into existence in America.
Later, Hippies, along with many others grew dreary and just wanted everyone to get along.
Many hippies believed that everybody was equal and that everyone deserved the same right to go to school and vote.
Along with the war, hippies took part in protest against discrimination.
They not only just march and use their voices to protect against the war and racism, they also used their appearance by growing out their hair, wearing colorful clothing and jewelry.
Hippies were able to take advantage of a new form of contraception that was being offered known as “The Pill”.
By the time discovered new ways to express themselves through protests and sex. Not only that, they also turned to music as a form of emotional, spiritual and political expression.
For hippies, music became more than just a form of entertainment, it became a medium to convey message to others and allow them to explore their inner world and guide them on a quest for meaning.
The surfacing of mind-altering drugs and new kind of music made Hippies more apparent and exploding.
The hippies movement was a direct effect on the leas that prevented drug use which still exist today.
The hippie movement also affected the Civil Rights Movement. It eventually resulted in several laws giving African American and women the equal rights to vote, education and work.
Hippies also inspired the decline in popularity of the necktie and other business clothing, which had been unavoidable for men during the 1950s and early 1960s.
Summary
Overall, the hippie movement was a time of not only exploring oneself and rebelling against the society, but also a time of acceptance.
After the hippie movement, African Americans, working women, homosexuals, nudity and non-traditional apparel all became generally more accepted.
Without the hippie movement, the United States would not be as free and adoptive as it is today.
