By the 1920s, as sex radicals were silenced by the Red Scare, more conventional reformers—social scientists and ex-radicals—developed the concept of companionate marriage, to adapt marriage to a growing youth culture, women's independence and civil equality, and a more consumer-oriented middle class. Figures like Judge Ben Lindsey, author of Companionate Marriage, portrayed sexual intimacy as the cement of marriage and birth control as a necessary support; they called for greater privacy and freedom from parental control for young couples; and they demanded sexual and psychological equality for women. Companionate marriage reflected a more individualistic society and a vision of marriage as the union of two individuals bonded through sexual love, rather than the traditional institution of childbearing, kin, and property relations.
Keywords: companionate marriage, birth control, privacy, youth culture, love,