Posted on 10/30/2013 10:13:14 AM PDT by Stoat
So much for Womens Lib.
An eighth-grader took cues from a 1950s etiquette book touting white gloves and girdles in a quirky bid to be popular at school a couple years ago and now, shes laughing all the way to the bank.
Teenager Maya Van Wagenen cleverly chronicled how she used tips from the decades-old Betty Cornells Teen-age Popularity Guide to gain an edge as a student new to Brownsville, Texas.
She followed some of Cornells sage advice, which included the gloves, white pearls and girdles, as well as how to properly squeeze pimples, shave ones legs for summer and deal with figure problems by choosing grapefruit and wheat toast with [a] small amount of butter for breakfast.
(edit)
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
We do now. Slip on shoes, no belt, a birthday suit if it's not too cold...
Did you consider applying it internally? Just as an experiment to determine the effectiveness of that mode of application. Sort of a compare and contrast.
My response?
Sorry ma'am, I mistook you for a lady.
...and then the fight started.
Gloves keep yuck off your hands, even in the South.
Southern women are always very proper and respect the amenities....
Do you know why Southern women don’t like to have group sex?
They don’t want to write all of those thank-you notes.
Seriously ?? At a time men universally claimed it was a woman’s “duty” to respect and obey him, if that isn’t seeing someone as a useful object I’m not sure what is. I guess it is easy to gloss over many unhappy memories from the past and to have warm memories of the good times, especially when compared to all the pain and turmoil in the world today.
I went out with a young "lady" and she would hurry to the door to hold it for me. After the second date I never called her again. I told her friend that when she felt she deserved respect to let me know. Nice Girl but seriously messed up with, the feminist stuff.
A very practical way to look at things.
Thats a general you, not you personally.
That's the way I read your comment, I figure "no offense intended", "none taken" seems appropriate.
Life is too short to get mired in superficial trivialities.
Regards,
GtG
PS I like to spread a little joy where ever I go,
sometimes when I arrive,
sometimes when I leave...
“Sorry ma’am, I mistook you for a lady.”
When I was about four feet tall, I was holding a very, very heavy department store door open for my mother. I continued to hold it for several more ladies, until one said “chauvinist!” as she entered the doorway. I let it fly. Knocked the btch right on her fem butt. I looked up at my mom expecting to catch hell only to find a wry smile and a wink.
I agree with you. I was watching Miracle on 34th Street one time, (the Maureen O’Hara version.) Her character, Doris, is an executive at Macy’s, and throughout the movie she appears to be equal with the male executives, (she has her own office and secretary, etc.) Apparently nobody in the 1940s blinked an eyelash at this, though the 1940s was supposedly a horrible, sexist, terrible time for women.
Anyway, there’s one scene where all the executives are called in to the big boss’s office. Several male executives are already seated when Doris walks in, and they all stand up when she enters. I always thought that was lovely. Here was this lady who had an important job, but she was still a LADY, and treated as such. I don’t think we should have thrown such manners away in the name of “equality.”
Anyone, teen or not, adhering to American INFORMAL standards (and Americans have always been less formal than the rest of the world) of the 1950s will be a HUGE cut-above the contemporary (slob) “standards” of post the 1960s USA.
Self-esteem and human dignity are expressed in how we dress and comport ourselves around others. Clearly the social “revolution” of the ‘60s and since, have eroded and even destroyed our self-esteem and dignity....since no one seems to care how we come across to others on a regular basis.
Dressing well and (formerly) common courtesy—is actually a form of respect and even love for others. A spoiled, selfish, narcissistic generation cannot understand this.
No wonder this girl’s efforts have apparently worked. And she is probably very casual in her etiquette compared to actual 1950s standards.
Good for you and mom!
Spoiled perhaps, but don’t discount the importance of educated, independent and wealthy. I’ll take it. I doubt very much women could have aspired to managerial or professional status in the 1970’s without wearing clothing that imitated the male business suit.
I’m sure he had some. I was underage at the time.
My mother had always sewed my clothes, I had no store bought clothes. Before they took me to college, they took me to Dallas to Sanger-Harris and told me I could buy any clothes I wanted. Forget long pants, no girl wore them. We wore skirts and blouses and dresses. I realized my life was going to be different than it had been. I was the church pianist and the preacher would pick me up early Sunday morning and drive to Kilgore where I played him on the radio and off the radio. That was going to stop.
Now, we come to Binnion Hall in Commerce Texas, the dorm for girls in the 50s. The house mother was a large woman and a girl had better not mess up. I was the studious kind so my parents paid for a private room so I wouldn't have a room mate. Thanks goodness I had that private room (and too bad you guys weren't in that building). They would run up and down the halls with little on or nothing on, it was crazy. If they made too much noise, big housemother would appear and you had better have clothes on then.
Every girl had to be in that dorm by 10 pm during the week and 11 pm on weekends, no exceptions. If you were late, you had to go to the dean of women and get chewed out. If you were the boy bringing a girl home late, you were sent to the dean of men and read the riot act.
Every girl was expected to walk to town on Sunday and go to church - every girl wore a hat and white gloves. If you didn't wear that garb, the housemother had a fit. We were carbon copies, everyone dressed up with hats and gloves.
I'm trying to think when that hat and gloves dressing thing ended. It lasted through the 50s and began to go out in the early 60s I believe. Yes, we all wore girdles, too. I weighed all of about 90 pounds at the most, and a girdle was useless on me, there was nothing to bunch together like a girdle does. I think that stopped for sure in the early 60s if not before.
Another thing changed in my life and made no sense to me. I was not allowed to go to dances in high school. I was tied to the church on Sunday in Kilgore and then church on Sunday and Wednesday nights playing the piano. I was the perfect daughter. I was not allowed to say any word that might be off color - one day in front of my mother I said, “Piffle”. She chewed me out for saying that word. No “heck” was ever said in that house. There were no playing cards in the house.
So, off I go to college and she makes an evening gown for me TO WEAR TO DANCES! Not one word did she ever say to me about going to college dances. All I could figure was her friends at church wouldn't know I went so it was okay. Boy, did I go to dances, and dances and dances.
Yes, Kartographer, in the 50s, boys were held to a higher standard in those days because girls had restrictions on them. When did it stop? I have to say in the early 60s, girls were not so restricted but I can't remember if we could wear long pants then out in public - don't think we would have worn long pants to church. I think when long pants were okay, girls lost their specialness. The boy saw a girl in pants, not a lovely creation in a dress and hat and gloves. The way merchandise is packaged, matters.
ping to my 54 - what did you do in the 50s?
I did not say any particular era was noted for treating individuals respectfully, only that we could use more of it.
Hear, Hear!!! (To you both!)
I have always advocated that classy dress is actually more attracting to men because we have to use our imagination.
/johnny
Definitely. Rape, riot, massacres, child abuse, and animal cruelty may have flourished in previous ages but common courtesy has no doubt gone out the window.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.