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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Sunday, March 27, 2011


3 comments:

VV said...

Okay, she's the ring master, keeping men running in circles inside the engagement ring? I guess that's the most power a woman would have had in that time period.

CyberKitten said...

In 1924 I guess that's as good as it got - the ability to choose a spouse. Though it does sound a lot like prostitution: offering herself basically to the highest bidder..... It's not a time period I know much about (though I am investigating).

I know in Europe that there was a great shortage of men - 1924 being only 6 years after WW1 afterall - but I'm not sure if it had anywhere near the same impact on the US (where this magazine was published). Maybe it shows the sexual economics of supply and demand? I imagine that the readership of the time knew exactly what the cover represented.

VV said...

Yeah, I believe Europe lost an entire generation of young men due to WWI, so there was a shortage of available men for husbands. This is why I believe Germany stopped prosecuting unwed mothers and began setting up public aid for them because they needed to add to their population to recover from the effects of the war. I don't think the US had the same issue because I believe they only lost a couple hundred thousand men compared to 7+ million men lost in Europe.