“Sex and the College Girl” is a fascinating read 65 years later

[boingboing]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/01/sex-and-the-college-girl-is-a-fascinating-read-65-years-later.html

…

[Mindysan33]

@boingboing

female

@boingboing

lacking a solid background of Christian ethics, most girls have only a couple of vague rules of thumb to go by

@boingboing

and yet we’re still litigating so many of the same issues our Eisenhower-era predecessors did.

While some assholes are clearly trying to drag us back to the 19th century for women’s rights, we are miles away from where we were in terms of legal equity. Women in 1959 couldn’t easily divorce, have their own bank account if married or a credit card, so no financial independence for married women. Coverture laws were on the books in some states until the 1960s!!!

[Scientist]

@Mindysan33

Coverture laws were on the books in some states until the 1960s!!!

Holy shitballs. From that page I learned that I was alive in a state where if a woman bought a house and the deed was in her name, her husband could legally sell or mortgage it without even telling her.

In 1979, Louisiana became the last of the states of the U.S. to have its Head and Master law struck down. An appeal made it to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1980, and in the following year the high court’s decision in Kirchberg v. Feenstra effectively declared the practice of male-rule in marriage unconstitutional, generally favoring instead a co-administration model.

[Mindysan33]

Right? It’s enraging, isn’t it… All our hard won rights feel so fragile (not just along the lines of gender, either, but all of them)…

[Kilkrazy]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[stinkinbadgers]

@Kilkrazy

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

yup

If my disillusioned friend complains about it, he had better realize that as long as he wants an educated woman, his chances of finding one who is also willing to be totally dominated by her husband, who can yield completely to him, are fairly slim.

[stinkinbadgers]

This, then, is what the result is for a girl who has been brought up in a world where the only real value is self-betterment. She has had to create her own right and wrong, by trial and error and endless discussion. If this is what is meant by Susie’s search for security, it is not security from a frightening world but from a world that has treated her too well.

Congratulations, welcome to existentialism.

I feel like that last paragraph could have been written by Herzog, if she had thrown in a phrase about an uncaring universe.