once a contraceptive method of unprecedented effectiveness came along—the Pill, available everywhere by 1965—heterosexuality dramatically changed. People were freer to have sex more often and therefore more imaginatively, without the antifantasy buzzkill of possible pregnancy. Reliable contraception also meant they could do it with more people they found fleetingly attractive, and have sex unseriously, the way they might daydream about ravishing a character in a novel or a movie. When sex became far less consequential, it could become less “real” and more like exciting fiction.
