A Brief History Of Courting

Rebecca Field Jager writes:

They drink like fiends, dabble in drugs, dance until dawn and have sex together. Who are they? A couple of rich kids on a date: in the 1920s, that is.

In a nation heady with victory, the dating scene after the First World War was all about unfettered fun. But that would change in the coming decade. Then change back. Then change again.

Courting in Canada over the past 75 years hasn’t been a linear journey from innocence to debauchery. In fact, some historians argue it was easier to be gay in 1929 than 1959, and more acceptable to sleep around in 1967 than 1987. And forget making sweeping statements such as, Today, everybody’s sleeping with everybody. Speak for yourself. Canada is a vast country and there are a lot of variances among geographical, religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups.

Of course, there’s no harm in talking tendencies. For example, the rich tend to sleep around more than the poor simply because they’ve always had greater access to privacy. Even during the Depression, affluent young people had a place to escape to, whether a car, college dorm or family cottage.

But getting it on was frowned on in the 1930s. Piety and poverty tend to make good bedfellows.