Grab your flower crowns, and bell-bottom jeans, and dust off your Sergeant Pepper album, because this article is all about the 1960s hippie movement! As the aging guru and notorious villain of Heathers the Musical, Pauline Fleming says “In the Sixties love was free; that did not work out well for me. The Revolution came and went; tried to change the world, barely made a dent.” (Laurence and O'Keefe, 94) What Ms. Fleming is referring to this moment of “healing” or trauma dump as the prominent counter-cultural hippie movement of the 1960s.
The actual term “hippie” was derived from the small but impactful literary Beat Movement of the 1950s. Notable members of this movement include Jack Kerouac (On the Road, Lonesome Traveler), William S. Burroughs II (Naked Lunch), and poet Allen Ginsberg (Howl, America). The beat movement was defined by authors’ liberal use of explicit subject matters that often includes depictions of drug use and sex (Parker). These writers were in direct opposition to the mainstream corporate culture and often were quite open about their drug use (Lingyu, 43).
Image: Allen Ginsberg (center) during the Summer of Love. Image Source: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/08/how-allen-ginsbergs-howl-transformed-pop
Moving away from the beats, a prominent aspect of the hippie movement was their political beliefs and activism in opposition to the Vietnam War, promotion of non-violence or “flower power”, advocacy for sexual liberation, anti-capitalism, and legalization of drugs to name a few. Many people who identified as a hippie were often white middle-class young people (Pruitt).
In the hippie movement, we see people of all genders dawning flowers in their hair reminiscent of the hippie anthem “San Francisco.” This fashion choice stems from the ideology of flower power, a term describing the movement’s philosophy of non-violence. The origins of the term “flower power” can be accredited to the beat poet Allen Ginsberg. In his essay, “Demonstration or Spectacle as Example, As Communication,” suggests using peace as a ‘weapon.’
“Masses of flowers–a visual spectacle–especially concentrated in the front line. Can be used to set up barricades, to present to Hell’s Angels, police…Masses of marchers…bring their flowers. Front line should be organized and provided with flowers.” (Ginsberg, 209)
What this usage of flowers was meant to convey was to use flowers as a prop that could turn these protests into a type of street theater that in theory would minimize the threat of violence in protests (Shepard). In May 1967, Activist Abbie Hoffman organized the Flower Brigade (Yardley) and during a protest against the Vietnam War, the famous photo of a young girl putting flowers into the barrel of a soldier's gun was taken.
Image: A young woman holding out a flower to an armed solider. Image Source: https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/politics/behind-the-image-protesting-vietnam-war-with-flower/
A notable protest against the Vietnam War occurred on October 21 and 22nd 1967 where 35,000 protestors gathered near the Pentagon building. They were subsequently sprayed with tear gas but later on, the protestors sat in front of the troops and the Pentagon where they gave speeches, sang, held teach-ins, etc. they also directly went up to the troops stationed and tried to talk to them about their core values of peace, tolerance, and love (Lingyu, 45).
Another core tenet of the hippie movement was its advocacy for sexual liberation. Many members of the hippie movement argued that sex was just like anything else that a human being must do to survive such as breathing or eating (Lingyu, 43). They believed that sex and sexuality were simply natural and a form of self-expression. As a result of this progressive view of sex and sexuality, led to a greater expansion of education about sex, health issues about sex, and an expansion of advocacy for women and gay rights. (Lingyu, 43).
Overall, Fleming is quite right about how this movement “barely made a dent” in some sense. The Vietnam War prevailed and was still a heavy backlash to the war. They did try to change several components of their society such as ending poverty, and the entire concept of ‘violence’ which is a noble endeavor but maybe a bit lofty for a group of decentralized 20-somethings.
Works Cited:
Begaja, Kathryn “The Summer Of Love: Hippie Culture And The Beatles In 1967” TCNJ Journal April 2014 https://joss.tcnj.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/176/2014/04/2014-Begeja.pdf
Ginsberg, Allen “Demonstration or Spectacle as Example, As Communication,” 1965, 209-210 https://archive.org/details/portablesixtiesr0000unse_t4h3/mode/1up
Lingyu, Kong “Seeing the Hippies beyond Stereotypes and Deciphering the Message of the Hippie Movement” IOSR Journal of Humanities And Social Science, Volume 25, Issue 11, Series 5. Nov. 2020 10.9790/0837-2511054246
Parker, Nicholas “Where to Start with the Beat Generation” New York Public Library March 10, 2017. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2017/03/02/where-start-beat-generation
Shepard, Ben “Absurd Responses vs. Earnest Politics” Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Vol. 1, No. 3, Jan 2003 https://web.archive.org/web/20080703163847/http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/1/BenShepard/shepard2.html
Yardley, Jonathan “Leader of the Flower Brigade” The Washington Post Jan. 26, 1997 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1997/01/26/leader-of-the-flower-brigade/d09f5ebe-6bad-4009-9236-168e1f0b969b/