 Written at the peak of the sexual revolution during the so-called Sexy Sixties, the story was highly topical at that time.It was also that year when Pope Paul VI published an encyclical detailing the new official Catholic position against birth control pills and artificial contraception.The story depicts what has been described as a "corrective rape"—the character of Billy the Poet rapes women "to liberate them from frigidity", an act he claims these women later come to understand and appreciate.