sweet, i have always wanted to know what happens when you marry

Oh my god, you guys. My faithful brigadier sent me this link today, and it is quality. Amy of Amalah.com posted many, many scans (with accompanying witty commentary) of the inside of her beloved book, When You Marry, given to her as a wedding present by her brother. Intended as a high school text book, this 1962 tome delves the ins and outs of dating and marriage for “modern” teenagers.

As anyone who has seen an episode of Mad Men will be able to attest, the early 1960s were not a particularly open, accepting time (although tell me what era is; 50 years from now people are going to be looking back at us and thinking, “I can’t believe gay people weren’t allowed to marry“). This book is so, so wrong. But oh so deliciously, right. In the most whacked out sense of the word.

The entries range from shocking (on Social Class Differences: “Working class people are more promiscuous before marriage / Middle class people have less premarital sex intercourse”)* to creepy (pop quiz! when should you break off the engagement?) to eyebrow-raising (an essay on why, exactly, you should avoid premarital sex; as if the same couple who lose their “idealized images” of each other and “experience negative feelings” after having premarital sex WON’T feel the same way if they wait until after marriage?) to offensive (Background Factors in Marital Success that are not true for Negro and Swedish couples) to unintentionally hilarious (Establishing an Etiquette of Intimacy) to the surprisingly perceptive (disillusionment via advertising).

And we haven’t even covered the perceptions of gender roles.

I such a sucker for old books about cultural norms. Get thee there and gander.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this insight: “The typical gallant young Southerner at the slightest provocation can string a line of sugared words and compliments which will delight any female listener.”

Word.

* Was the “sex intercourse” distinction really necessary? Also, I just realized that this post is going to bring some pretty odd traffic once it is indexed. Sex intercourse, sex intercourse.