Domestic Abuse In The 1920's

Domestic Abuse in the 1920s

In order to contextualize the texts of both groups, it is necessary to understand the social atmosphere of the 1920s as it related to domestic violence. In his book What

Trouble I’ve Seen: A History of Violence Against Wives, David Peterson del Mar notes that the 1920s witnessed a rise in incidents and acceptance of domestic violence for a number of reasons. For one, the consumer culture and popular psychology of the 1920s emphasized a lack of restraint. Popular psychology identified “the positive aspects of anger” and encouraged couples to communicate their desires to one another.

Sometimes this anger and communication, coupled with a lack of restraint, resulted in violence. Additionally, changing gender social codes

Jim claims “that his girlfriend liked ‘that I was burly and rough, and would use my muscle to make her sit on my lap, and would pick her up in my arms and swing her around, head down, while she clawed and wiggled and has as much fun of the rough-house as I did’ . . . ‘Any real girl likes for her man to use his muscle on her’”

(115). Feminine social codes also changed, encouraging women to exercise independence and voice their desires. When their desires differed from their husbands, some husbands countered with violence. Violence against women may have also been a backlash against women’s increased freedom in the social sphere. Men sometimes cited jealousy as an excuse for beating their wives; violence became a way for husbands to control their wives and keep them at home (Peterson del Mar 107-126).

Scholars interested in domestic violence report that social attitudes about it were mixed in the 1920s. Jennifer Jones asserts that domestic violence was, for the most part, accepted by society. Jones discusses Abraham Myerson’s The Nervous Housewife

(1920) to illustrate the medical community’s acceptance of abuse. According to