Singles bars flourished in the 1970s, reflecting the sweeping changes that followed the Sexual Revolution and the attempted passage of the Equal Rights Movement. Commonly referred to as "meat markets," singles bars acted as an open setting in which men and women felt free to engage one another. Statistics cited by sociologist Nancy Netting revealed that by 1980 the rate of premarital sexual intercourse for American college-age women equaled the rate for college-age men. This was a significant change, as the rate for women having premarital intercourse between 1930-1965, studies showed, was 30 percent lower than that of men. One change that resulted from all of these factors was that bar patrons were no longer exclusively male.

Singles bars have a popular image as hotbeds of frenzied, sexual activity, but there is some evidence to suggest that this presumption may be somewhat exaggerated. Despite the promiscuous conduct that...