Summary Of From Front Porch To Backseat: The History Of Dating

Belongingness is an emotion that everyone longs to feel throughout the course of their lives. Starting in adolescence, we as humans are naturally attracted to others in a romantic way. Girls in junior high start wearing make-up and dressing nice in order to impress the boys and get their attention. During this time, both girls and boys want a boyfriend or girlfriend, and are interested in this idea of “dating.” As boys and girls progress into high school, dating becomes even more of the thing to do. As a young teenager, I wanted to date, but my parents were against it. Many parents have a negative outlook about dating because of the consequences it may lead to, mainly sexual activity. Some believe that dating has changed drastically for

This excerpt comes from her book, From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in the Twentieth-Century America. Bailey is a social/cultural historian of the 20th century United States. She is employed with Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, her area of research focusing on the history of gender and sexuality and on war and society/military institutions in the U.S. history. Bailey has published numerous other books that have received high ratings. In the article, Bailey presents some areas of bias, such as race and sexual orientation. She does not include any other races besides non-Latino whites, and it was clear that all of the couples spoken of were heterosexual. She also only wrote of “traditional” relationships. Her authority, knowledge, and experience empower the article, but the little bias that is presented may offend

These categories of language include: slanting, and slogans. Negative and positive slanting occurs throughout the full article, and makes a splendid impact on the overall tone of the argument. One example of positive slanting, found in the middle of the article states, “By the time World War II drew to a close, however, American culture had begun celebrating marriage for youth.” The word “celebrating” gives the sentence a positive feel, and let’s the reader know that during this time period marriage was a happy event. Negative slanting is found more often in this article. “‘Getting stuck’ with a partner was taken quite seriously as a sign of social failure- even if it was with one’s escort.” The phrase “getting stuck” stands out negatively and helps the reader understand how important it was to dance with a large amount of dates. Slogans are also used in the article “From Front Porch to Backseat: A History of the Date.” The slogan used helps created a stronger understanding of what dating was about in past times. “In the 1930s, a sociologist gave the competitive system a name: the dating and rating complex.” Bailey’s use of language in this article assist in supporting her claim that dating was not as people think it was in the “good old