Did you know that dating, as we think of it, didn't really exist until the 1920's?
Most people wanted family's and children. Marriage was expected and necessary, with major economic and social demands on people. It was normal for a partnership to be planned out long before the prospective couple were of marrying age. Romantic feelings towards each other were a bonus, if they happened at all.
Typically, a young man would be chosen by the girls family to court, or "come calling" on her, when the time was right.
Meetings would take place at the young woman's home, with her parent's present. Maybe she would have danced, or played the piano to entertain her suitor, while her mother set out refreshments and her father engaged the prospective groom in polite conversation. But after the First World War ended, a lot changed, especially for women.
Women won the right to vote, and started working outside the home. Motion pictures became all the rage, imparting notions of love and romance. More people had cars, making it easy to socialize at dance halls, sporting events and speakeasy's.
The older generation lived in horror at the thought of all the rampant promiscuity that was surely going on. There was certainly more opportunity for it, and unlike their parent's generation, boundaries weren't nearly as defined as they previously were. But enjoying more freedoms than their parents did, didn't eradicate all the values the younger generation grew up with.
Dating for fun and companionship became more common, and could even increase one's popularity. But for all the talk of the new sexual liberation, dating in the 1920s still had its limits.
As long as you were in a committed relationship, it was considered perfectly fine to kiss and even caress, but that's as far as that goes..
However, more effective contraception was available, and some took the risk. In the era, it was a leap of faith that could ruin a girls reputation forever, if her partner decided not to marry her.
But this was the very beginning of women starting to make important decisions for themselves, and about themselves. The ability to leave the home and go on a date without parental supervision was revolutionary.
Thankfully today, we're free to do what we like and be with whoever makes us happy. And we can even do things out of order. Sometimes unions last forever, but mostly not. The sun still shines, and love gives us our beautiful children and grandchildren. It's all good. xo
