Flower child

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Two hippies at Woodstock

Flower child originated as a synonym for hippie, especially among the idealistic young people who gathered in San Francisco and the surrounding area during the Summer of Love in 1967. It was the custom of "flower children" to wear and distribute flowers or floral-themed decorations to symbolize ideals of universal belonging, peace, and love. The mass media picked up on the term and used it to refer in a broad sense to any hippie. Flower children were also associated with the flower power political movement, which originated in ideas written by Allen Ginsberg in 1965.

Contents

Origins

A protester dressed as a flower child at the Occupy Wall Street event, September 24, 2011 Day 8 Occupy Wall Street September 24 2011 Shankbone 24.JPG
A protester dressed as a flower child at the Occupy Wall Street event, September 24, 2011

The term originated in the mid-1960s in the wake of a film version of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine that depicted flower-bestowing, communal people of the future in a story characterized by antiwar themes. American political activists like Allen Ginsberg and Abbie Hoffman advocated the giving of flowers as a means of peaceful protest. [1] [2] [3] Images of flower-wielding protesters at the 1967 Pentagon March, such as Marc Riboud's image of Jan Rose Kasmir titled The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet [4] and Bernie Boston's Pulitzer Prize–nominated photograph Flower Power , [5] popularized the association of flowers with the counterculture movement of the 1970s. Hippies embraced the symbolism by dressing in clothing with embroidered flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair, and distributing flowers to the public, becoming known as flower children. [6]

San Francisco

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John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas wrote the song "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" for his friend Scott McKenzie to promote the Monterey Pop Festival that Phillips was helping to organize. [7] Released on May 13, 1967, the song's lyrics urged visitors to San Francisco to "wear some flowers in your hair", in keeping with the festival's billing as "three days of music, love, and flowers". The song was a popular hit, reaching number 4 on the music chart in the United States and number 1 in the United Kingdom and most of Europe, [8] [9] and became an unofficial anthem for hippies, flower power and the flower child concept. [10]

Summer of Love

After the January 14, 1967 Human Be-In organized by artist Michael Bowen (among other things, announcements told participants to bring flowers), as many as 100,000 young people from all over the world flocked to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, Berkeley, and other Bay Area cities during the Summer of Love in search of different value systems and experiences. [11] [12] After the Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967, the Summer of Love became a watershed event in the development of a worldwide 1960s counterculture when newly recruited flower children returned home at the end of the summer, taking with them new styles, ideas, and behaviors and introducing them in all major cities of the U.S. and western Europe.

Social analysis

In his book, Prometheus Rising , the philosopher Robert Anton Wilson suggested that the flower children could be viewed in Jungian terms as a collective social symbol representing the mood of friendly weakness. [13] In 1995, The Sekhmet Hypothesis extended Wilson's idea into other pop cultural trends with other youth movements being compared to the moods of hostile weakness, friendly strength and hostile strength. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Summer of Love</span> 1967 social phenomenon in San Francisco

The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. More broadly, the Summer of Love encompassed the culture of hippie music, hallucinogenic drugs, anti-war sentiment, and free-love throughout the West Coast of the United States, and as far away as New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippie</span> Person associated with 1960s counterculture

A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during or around 1964 and spread to different countries around the world. The word hippie came from hipster and was used to describe beatniks who moved into New York City's Greenwich Village, in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, and Chicago's Old Town community. The term hippie was used in print by San Francisco writer Michael Fallon, helping popularize use of the term in the media, although the tag was seen elsewhere earlier.

The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and street theatre actors operating from 1966 to 1968, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics have been categorized as "left-wing." More accurately, they were "community anarchists" who blended a desire for freedom with a consciousness of the community in which they lived. The Diggers' central tenet was to be "authentic," seeking to create a society free from the dictates of money and capitalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human Be-In</span> 1967 countercultural gathering in San Francisco, California

The Human Be-In was an event held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Polo Fields on January 14, 1967. It was a prelude to San Francisco's Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol of American counterculture and introduced the word "psychedelic" to suburbia.

The Love Pageant Rally took place on October 6, 1966—the day LSD became illegal—in the 'panhandle' of Golden Gate Park, a narrower section that projects into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. The 'Haight' was a neighborhood of run-down turn-of-the-20th-century housing that was the center of San Francisco's counterculture in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haight-Ashbury</span> Neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flower power</span> Slogan of passive resistance and nonviolence

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<i>San Francisco Oracle</i> Underground newspaper

The Oracle of the City of San Francisco, also known as the San Francisco Oracle, was an underground newspaper published in 12 issues from September 20, 1966, to February 1968 in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of that city. Allen Cohen (1940–2004), the editor during the paper's most vibrant period, and Michael Bowen, the art director, were among the founders of the publication. The Oracle was an early member of the Underground Press Syndicate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco sound</span> Rock music performed in and around San Francisco from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s

The San Francisco sound refers to rock music performed live and recorded by San Francisco-based rock groups of the mid-1960s to early 1970s. It was associated with the counterculture community in San Francisco, particularly the Haight-Ashbury district, during these years. San Francisco is a westward-looking port city, a city that at the time was 'big enough' but not manic like New York City or spread out like Los Angeles. Hence, it could support a 'scene'. According to journalist Ed Vulliamy, "A core of Haight Ashbury bands played with each other, for each other"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)</span> 1967 single by Scott McKenzie

"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" is an American pop music song, written by John Phillips, and sung by Scott McKenzie. It was produced and released in May 1967 by Phillips and Lou Adler, who used it to promote their Monterey International Pop Music Festival held in June of that year.

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The hippie subculture began its development as a youth movement in the United States during the early 1960s and then developed around the world.

<i>The Love-Ins</i> 1967 film by Arthur Dreifuss

The Love-Ins is a 1967 American counterculture-era exploitation movie about LSD that was directed by Arthur Dreifuss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mantra-Rock Dance</span> 1967 counterculture music event

The Mantra-Rock Dance was a counterculture music event held on January 29, 1967, at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. It was organized by followers of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) as an opportunity for its founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, to address a wider public. It was also a promotional and fundraising effort for their first center on the West Coast of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Law</span> American photographer and filmmaker

Lisa Law is an American photographer and filmmaker of 1960s counterculture best known, with Peter Whiterabbit, for photographing the 1969 Woodstock festival, where she also organised food. She was also involved in the organisation of the Woodstock '99 festival.

Lee Quarnstrom was an American journalist, executive editor of Larry Flynt’s Hustler Magazine, and a Beatnik. He was a core member of the Merry Band of Pranksters, a group loosely led by novelist Ken Kesey.

<i>It Was Twenty Years Ago Today</i> (film) 1987 British film

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today is a 1987 British-made television documentary film about the 1967 Summer of Love. It premiered on 1 June 1987, twenty years after the official release date of the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and presents the album as the central factor behind the events and scenes that led to the full emergence of the 1960s counterculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippie Hill</span> Historic area in Golden Gate Park, California, United States

Hippie Hill is a small hill and historic area within Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. It is situated between the Conservatory of Flowers and Haight Street. Positioned east of the Golden Gate Park tennis courts, this green space features a gentle sloping lawn located off Kezar Drive. It provides views overlooking Robin Williams Meadow and is bordered by Eucalyptus and Oak trees on either side. Notably, the hill is home to several uncommon tree species, including coast banksia, titoki, turpentine, and cow-itch.

References

  1. "Allen Ginsberg", American Masters, Public Broadcasting System, pbs.org, retrieved 30-04-2009
  2. "Guide to the Allen Ginsberg Papers: Biography/Administrative History" (PDF). The Online Archive of California. Stanford University. 1997. p. 3. Retrieved 2011-09-21.
  3. Tony Perry, "Poet Allen Ginsberg Dies at 70", Los Angeles Times , April 06, 1997
  4. Curry, Andrew (April 2004). "Flower Child". Smithsonian Magazine . Archived from the original on 2013-03-24. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  5. Bernie Boston, "Flower Power", The Washington Evening Star, October 21, 1967
  6. Rennay Craats, History of the 1970s, Weigl Publishers, 2001, p. 36. ISBN   1-930954-29-8.
  7. Eddi Fiegel (2006). Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Life of 'Mama' Cass Elliot. pp. 225–226. ISBN   9780330487511 . Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  8. "U.K. Number Ones 1960-69". Rockmine Archives. Archived from the original on 2006-05-07. Retrieved 2006-06-21.
  9. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 415.
  10. McClellan, Dennis (August 21, 2012). "Scott McKenzie dies at 73". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  11. Gene Anthony (1980). The Summer of Love: Haight-Ashbury at Its Highest (PDF). ISBN   0867194219. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 6, 2007.
  12. "Allen Cohen". Archived from the original on 2003-03-01. Retrieved 2003-03-01.
  13. Wilson, Robert Anton (1983). Prometheus Rising . Falcon Press. p.  55. ISBN   9781561840564. 'She/He is self-critical, shy, timid, easily led, "spineless," and always looking for somebody to Take Charge and Give Orders. The unearthly Angel, or in modern symbolism, the Flower Child'.
  14. Spence, Iain (2012). The Hare Hypothesis. Bast's Blend. ASIN   B009E2YUJM.

Further reading