free love
Affection without contracts
Free love is the practice or philosophy of having sexual relationships without marriage, legal ties, or long-term commitment.
The term emerged in the 19th century among social reformers who rejected state and church authority over intimate relationships.
It resurged in the 1960s counterculture: The commune embraced free love and communal living.
The phrase now sounds dated, evoking hippie idealism.
- flower powerNonviolent resistance ideology
- flower childrenSixties peacenik youth
- polyamoryConsensual multiple romantic relationships
- WoodstockLandmark 1969 music festival
- countercultureRejection of mainstream values
adultery · extramarital sex · sexual revolution · relationship anarchy · no strings attached · sexual autonomy · birth control pill · freethinker · sexual liberation · premarital sex · hippie movement · bohemian lifestyle · non-monogamy · communal living · sixties · drop out · anarchism · anti-authoritarianism
- Communescommunes, communal living, kibbutz, hippie commune, utopian communities
- BoomersAARP, AARP member, empty nester, empty nesters, grandparent
- countercultureflower power, flower children, hippie communes, Woodstock, peace symbols
- promiscuitypromiscuity, sleeping around, casual sex, hookups, one-night stands
- PsychedeliaLSD, acid, psychedelic posters, tie-dye, hallucination
- sexual customssexual norms, sexual taboos, marriage customs, courtship, virginity
free lovemonogamy
One partner at a time
matrimony · marriage · wedlock · marital fidelity · committed relationship
free lovepuritanism
Rigid moral severity
Victorian morality · prudery · chastity · celibacy · abstinence
free loveholy matrimony
Sacred rite of spousal union