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From: robert@fear.UUCP (Robert Plamondon)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: \"Traditional Values\"
Message-ID: <281@fear.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Oct-85 16:20:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: fear.281
Posted: Tue Oct 15 16:20:55 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Oct-85 20:55:48 EDT
References: <828@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Weitek Corp. Sunnyvale Ca.
Lines: 72
Summary: When were the good old days, anyway?

In article <828@decwrl.UUCP>, dyer@vaxuum.DEC (People 'R' People) writes:
> 	In general, the traditional marriage benefits the husband
> much more than the wife, and the results can be seen when one sees
> mental health statistics in relation to sex and marriage:  married
> men (in general) enjoy the best mental health and married women
> (in general) enjoy the worst mental health [3].

Of course, those statistics reflect recent times. In the more distant
past, the situation is less clear. Would you:

a) choose a lifetime of backbreaking labor, conscription, and
financial troubles, or
b) choose a lifetime of constant light work and death in childbirth?, or
c) Noooooooooo, Mr. Wizard! I don't want to be a peasant no more!

It's only in the 20th century that there was any point arguing the
case. Even then, traditional marriages held together as long as
housekeeping was a full-time job, and the husband worked long hours,
six days a week.

Before World War II, housework took an immense amount of time.
Laundry was line-dried and hand-ironed. Frozen food hadn't caught on
yet, so shopping was more frequent, and pre-packaged stuff wasn't
available. Cooking took a lot of time, too.

Go back a few more decades, and you lose time-savers like the washing
machine, the refrigerator, the electric iron, and the gas or electric
range, complicating and lengthening housework. Add epidemics, lack of
personal transportation, no birth control, and a lower general
standard of living.

Get the idea? "Man works from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never
done."

Okay, so we know where the wife is. What's the husband doing?

He's working 10-12 hour days, SIX days a week; that's what he's
doing. In his "spare time" he does the heavy work around the house,
takes the kids to ball games, and the usual stereotypical stuff.

How can a marriage like this fall apart? Husband and wife never SEE
each other! Besides, he NEEDS her -- he can't possibly find the time
to do his own laundry, let alone cooking and cleaning. She needs him,
too, since she can't hold down a household and a job at once, either.

In those days, marriage was NECESSARY. The alternatives were few;
staying with relatives who would serve the same economic function as
a spouse, living in an environment where services were provided
(rooming houses, the Army, monastaries in Tibet), and being rich
enough to hire servants.

Once the work week was shortened, and labor-saving methods got into
high gear, marriage was no longer necessary. And when something isn't
necessary, people will choose not to do it, or abandon it when it
turns sour.

Want to go back to the good old days? First, pick a date ("Set the
date on the wayback machine, Sherman." "Sure thing, Mr. Peabody!").
Try to find a year without major epidemics, race riots, wars, and
such to mar the effect (good luck). Before doing anything rash,
though, post the date, and your reasons for choosing it to the net.
We'll all enjoy it. Anyway, then go about eliminating all the evil
influences that came into effect after that date (ragtime music, zoot
suits, flower power, black athletes, rumble seats, Madonna), and
you'll re-create the Golden Age.

It's funny, though, how people who lived in the Golden Age never
seemed to notice.
-- 

		Robert Plamondon
		{turtlevax, resonex, cae780}!weitek!robert