As Scanner Brian just showed you,
back in a time when sex was called "marital congress" people had some
pretty interesting — and terrifying — ideas about how their spouses
were supposed to behave. And when we say "spouses" we mean women.
George
W. Crane's Marital Rating Scale from 1939 makes this frighteningly
clear, offering a series of merits and demerits for a wife's ability to
keep up her house and her appearance.
How would we rate, Scanner Brian asks? Very poorly!
If there
was such a thing as the equivalent of the blogger back then (the
romance writer with a male pen name?), she'd be in big, big trouble.
Demerits, demerits, demerits for wearing "soiled or ragged dresses and
aprons around the house."
At least we'd get merits for being
able to carry on an interesting conversation, but we'd get — fuck! —
five demerits for using slang or profanity? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Infuriating, yet hilarious, right?
Luckily,
there's a chart for the husband that makes us feel a little better
about being such a poor potential spouse (can you really blame a guy
for snoring?).
How would you rate, men?
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