Holly Knippa
Dating in America
Courtship is a word of today’s past in American society. However, its role in history played a great role in our future times. Courtship has evolved into dating which in turn has evolved into adolescents and young adults becoming more physical and intimate with each other. The norms of dating have changed since the Victorian Era, although some researchers believe that not every aspect of courtship has changed.
Courtship or to court have many different definitions. Webster’s dictionary states that courtship is “the social activities leading to engagement and marriage”. The verb to court has another definition. It means “to woo” and to woo means to seek the love of another with marriage in mind. Another definition of “to court” is socializing between unmarried men and women. Courtship before the 1920s is when young men would “court “women in their homes under parent supervision. So, in the 1920s when men would ask women out on a date several days in advance to go to a movie, dinner, concert, a party or a dance, this greatly upset the older generation of the Victorian era. This became known as the traditional date. This traditional dating invention was pushed along by the automobile and commercial spots, like movie theatres where youth could go. Dating would, a majority of the time, lead to a serious relationship. Of course, there were times when it did not lead to a serious relationship. There were people who just wanted a “date” to attend a dance or a party. This type of courtship was mainly used to get to know someone, which could lead to a serious relationship. If a person wanted sex in this time period, dating was the only method to move into that direction. There were the occasional and unusual “pick up or “one night stand” that might occur, but generally dating would soon lead to marriage and then to the sexual relations. This was the norm in the 1950s and before. Now as time has progressed, it...