Of all the rituals of love, the first date is perhaps the most paramount — and the most dreaded. Hundreds of questions surround the pivotal event: How do you secure a date? What will you do once you've got one? Will your date think you're funny, or stupid? And what is dating, anyway?
Like everything else, dating — the often perplexing, sometimes revealing labor of love— has evolved over the years. Keep reading to discover what dating looked like the year you were born, below.
The word "date" was allegedly coined in 1896, by a forlorn lover.
According to Moira Weigel's book, "Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating," the word "date"first popped up in a newspaper column in which a heartbroken clerk named Artie wrote that the object of his affections was seeing other people. According Artie, his unrequited love told him that other people were "fillin' all my dates"— as in the dates in their calendar.
In the early 1900s, courtship was considered a public act.
Before the 19th century, most unions — heterosexual unions, anyway — were facilitated by parents, who would arrange for a male suitor to have a supervised visit in the woman's home. The goal of these visits was to evaluate whether or not the "courtship" could result in a marriage.
As Beth Bailey argues in her book, "From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth Century America," courtship at the time was distinct in that it was a predominately public act conducted in private spaces. In other words, in the early 1900s, a male suitor "courted" a potential woman mate in a private space (the woman's porch or living room) in front of a public audience (her family).
Two amendments were made following the conclusion of World War I that flipped the traditional rules of courtship on its head.
The dating scene in the 1920s has been romanticized as a glamorous affair defined by flapper girls, Gatsby-esque parties, and righteously liberated women — but liberation looked different in the 1920s than it does today.
Following the end of the first World War, two important amendments to the constitution were made: the 18th amendment, which prohibited the making, transporting, and selling of alcoholic beverages, and the 19th amendment, which granted American women the right to vote.
Speakeasies— illicit liquor stores and nightclubs — exploded onto the scene. The era of the male-only, pre-Prohibition saloons was over, and women started to patronize these bars, too. Courtship became a private event held in public (albeit forbidden) spaces; however, with the advent of the "liberated" women came the origin of "slut-shaming."
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