Gypsy Creams

Leave It To Him

Woman's Weekly / 9th April 1965

Well, I fancied some Sunday sexism, so I thought I’d drag out another one of Mary’s pages. Nowadays, I’d hope that men taking women on dates would assume that their companions were able to string a sentence together to order their dinner, but in 1965, this was obviously considered to be taking too much of a chance. Pity the poor woman who wanted to leave after the coffees, but whose male companion was getting stuck into the whisky and leering at other women, eh?

We’ve also got some poor girl whose mother is clearly terrified of her daughter growing up (my mum practically had to crowbar me into a bra), and an even more unfortunate girl. I sincerely hope she didn’t need the help of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child, and that her parents put the religious dogma aside to help her.

Tags: , , , ,

7 Comments

Nick on 31 July 2011 @ 8pm

Interestingly, the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child is still around, but now known as Gingerbread: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gingerbread_(charity)


Tanya Jones on 31 July 2011 @ 9pm

Just put in the html for your link there, Nick. Many thanks!


Jam Shambles on 6 August 2011 @ 1am

Interesting that Mary is still listed on the experts list for IPC: http://www.ipcmedia.com/press/ourexperts/#agony


Kif on 6 August 2011 @ 3pm

I am not defending the sexist assumptions in her reply but I don’t think, to be fair, that there was any implication that the woman would have been verbally incapable of speaking for herself. The point was that that *was not the done thing*. That may seem absurd now, but the fifties and early sixties were, for the middle classes at least, a period of accepted etiquette which would only be challenged by someone bent on “shwoing themselves up”. It was these semi hidden codes that were the chains on women (and gays and blacks etc) rather than any inherent capability issues.
It really was a different world. At least they had moved forward from the man actually chosing what the woman was to eat, which was the case in some middle class Victorian homes. The main thing about the fifties was a stifling conformity, and that is why the upheavals of the late sixties and seventies were so refreshing – though it took even longer for non conformity to become the default mode for some social behaviours.


ladymorgy on 25 August 2011 @ 10am

When Simon and I go out to eat most of the time he tells the waiter/waitress our orders for us. (I do tell him what I want to eat he doesn’t chose it for me) But then I am a bit old fashioned like that. I do sometimes tell the waiter what I want so it’s not all the time. I also like it when a man holds the door open for me, opens the car door for me (sadly I don’t get that anymore lol).


Tanya Jones on 25 August 2011 @ 12pm

You’ve been with Simon a long time though, Monica, so it’s not a sexist assumption on his part, he knows you just prefer it that way! John, for example, has never ordered anything from a pub bar, because he’d rather I take care of things. Silly, of course, but we accept a certain amount of that from our loved ones. It’s the etiquette that Kif refers to that is the real problem; that your sex somehow defines what you should and should not do. I don’t mind men showing me courtesy (I also like it when women do it!) but I think the last time someone opened a car door for me was when I was too small to reach the handle, and I’m happy with that!


Voter_Colonel on 25 August 2011 @ 12pm

Also with me and Monika it’s partly that Monika doesn’t like talking to the waiters because she fears they won’t understand her accent!


Leave a Comment