Dating through the Decades

Examining the changing ideas ofLove & Marriagethrough History

The Early 1900s

(Industrialization)

What do you remember about 1900s pop culture?

• The act of “calling” = courtship before the 1920s– A social interaction under close parental supervision of a

male and female– There were firm guidelines and codes of conduct– Usually occurred in the private sphere, in the home of the

female• “Calling” was an upper class practice• The lower classes started their own form of

“courtship”, which became known as dating– This practice was picked up by the upper classes in the

1920s• How do you think the car helped to change dating?

Dating in the early 1900s

Girl has to be announced “in season”

Promenade

How did you learn the rules?

Parlor Music & Quartets

Early 1900s =No radios yet

People would buy Sheet music

and play the songthemselves.

Song Pluggers:Street musicians

Why did the act of calling start to disappear?

By 1920s Dating is different. How?Positives/Negatives?

Shift in Power…Going out means entering the

“MAN’s WORLD”

Dating through the Decades

Examining the changing ideas ofLove & Marriagethrough History

The

Early 1920s(The Jazz Age)

So…what do you remember about the 1920s?

Inventions? Trends?

In the 1920s, dating became a COMPETITION.(Margaret Mead figured this out)

In order to participate & be successful in 1920s dating,Boys and girls had to be?

POPULAR!

Dance Floor Rules:It’s good to “Cut In”Don’t get “stuck”!

By the late 1920s, social critics feared that the new system of dating would lead to less marriage?

Why did they think this would happen?

Look for Willard Waller’s “Campus Rating Complex”

To be popular:Men had to: Women had to:

How did magazines advice:

Men Women