Sex really was hotter in the 1960s: It was fun, terrifying and men were grateful, says LIBBY PURVES (but FLORA GILL disagrees)

Was sex really better in the 1960s, as Marianne Faithfull insists? Yes, says Libby Purves, 74 A French kiss was an event thought about for days Libby Purves says when, as the 1960s saying was, they ‘went all the way’, there was power in its ancient capacity to bond people together emotionally Marianne Faithfull is on to something when she says, defiantly, that ‘sex was hotter. But that line about sex has certainly got a bit of shocked attention from a 21st-century generation which thinks ‘repression’, or even moderation, is an antique concept. No, says Flora Gill, 33 Don’t forget the rampant sexism in the 1960s Flora Gill says sex is better now, particularly for women, because we have the language, the means and the legal framework to be in control in a way that hardly existed 60 years ago The idea that sex was hotter in the 1960s is constantly being rehashed by older generations. Marianne Faithfull declares that the current ‘hipster-lite’ youth don’t know how to have a good time, and that she and her peers had more fun, better parties, and, yes, sexier sex because it was ‘repressed’ and therefore, the implication is, thrillingly illicit.