Once upon a time in the 1950s, men and women didn’t treat each other equally. Men would basically choose wives to bear their children and act as their unpaid servants.
Women were encouraged to hunt men down and capture their prize so that they could fulfill the role men had set out for them.
And this, of course, wasn’t always the case but it was the socially acceptable norm. In fact, women’s media actively encouraged this behavior.
Take this magazine article published in a 1958 edition of McCall’s Magazine called “129 Ways To Get a Husband.”
While the article seems laughable nowadays, women really did employ these ridiculous and degrading tactics to land them a husband.
Kim Marx-Kuczynski of Madison, Wisconsin spotted the article that is rife with absurd suggestions for women like crying in a corner, getting a hunting license, or read the obituaries for eligible widowers.
Yes, this article suggests that women prey on grieving men.
And it gets worse from there!
Kim said she couldn’t believe what she was reading when she came across the article at a tag sale.
While she found the article pretty shocking, she also found it to be funny.
If anything, it made her grateful for how far society has come.
Nowadays more people are getting married for love than because it’s just what you’re supposed to do by a certain age.
“My boyfriend John Bascynski spotted it at a rummage sale and pointed it out. I bought it for a dollar,” Kim told Bored Panda. “I think the article is reflective of the social mores of the era, and I found the comparison between what was acceptable then and what is acceptable now fascinating. It also made me grateful that so much progress has been made.
Not only is the advice in the article outdated, it’s insulting to both women and men.
Kim says its just plain out bad advice for people seeking long-term meaningful relationships.
She says its a recipe for failure, even if you are getting married for the sake of getting married and not for the sake of love.
“I think if someone is actively looking for a life-long partner just for the sake of being married, they will end up in a failed relationship whether they legally sever it or not,” she said. “I’d like to read about someone’s attempts at trying out everything on the list though. They would either end up with a degree from Yale, in federal prison for stowing away on a military vessel, or in an intervention meeting with friends who’ve been very concerned with their recent behavior.”
Still, Kim was able to find the humor in the article as many people on the internet were.
“It’s outdated and absurd and funny, but it had serious intentions,” Kim said. “Society has changed so much in the last sixty years, and this article exemplifies the differences between what our moms and grandmas grew up with compared to ourselves and the coming generations.”
“It’s fascinating. In the United States today there are sixteen million women over the age of seventeen who are not married,” the article begins. “Presumably the vast majority of them would like to be.”
It starts with a section on where to find a husband in the first place.
This part of the article starts with reasonable suggestions on where one could go to meet someone of the opposite sex like going for a walk with your dog, joining a hiking club, or going to the park. But then it gets weird.
The article loses us when it encourages women to make sad and desperate choices.
These include searching the obituaries for widowers, going to night school just so you can take classes that men like (whatever that means), or looking in census reports to find places with high levels of single men.
But this has to be the cake topper of the section: “Be friendly to ugly men – handsome is a handsome does.”
While you’re at it, why don’t you get lost at a football game or hang out with some attractive girls so you can scoop up their leftovers?
The next section deals with “How To Let Him Know You’re There.”
Here we have suggestions that tell women to “stumble when you walk into a room that he’s in,” “make a lot of money,” or “have your father buy some theater tickets that have to be got rid of.”
Why not “Buy a convertible. Men like to ride in them” or “Accidentally have your purse fly open, scatting its contents all over the street.”
Once you found him and let him know you exist, it’s time to “Look Good To Him.”
Here we find useful tidbits that tell women to “Practice your drinking with your women friends first” or to wear high heels “they’re sexier!”
This one takes the cake though: “Get a sunburn.”
Yes, risk getting skin cancer so you can look cute for dudes.
Now that you’re looking good you have to know “How To Land Him.”
The article recommends that you send his mother a birthday card or ask her for her recipes.
You can also: “Talk to his father about business and agree that taxes are too high!”
You can also buy the occasional present for his sister’s children.
Some of the suggestions make sense like don’t talk about how many kids you want right away or talk about your ex-boyfriends or husbands.
But, of course, it just gets silly from there with advice like: “If he’s rich, tell him you like his money – the honesty will intrigue him!” or “Point out to him that the death rate of single men is twice that of married men.”
Yes, lure him with fear of death… that will work. Who doesn’t want to be married to someone who is marrying you because they don’t want to die?
As if all these previous suggestions weren’t outlandish, they get “wild” from this point on.
The article suggests that women who want to take drastic measures be a “Stow away on a battleship,” or tell men they are adopted if their parents are fat, or better yet rent a billboard and post your picture and telephone number on it.
How desperate do they think women are, jeez?
“Stand on a busy street corner with a lasso”… that one is just bizarre.
And people on social media found this article to be equally bizarre.
“This is some backward stuff that caters to male fragility & ego,” wrote Raymond Chang on Twitter.
[imgsrc caption="Raymond Chang" link="https://twitter.com/search?q=Kim%20Marx-Kuczynski&src=typd"]
“I’m glad my wife, sister, or any daughter of mine won’t have to tolerate such nonsense.”
“Get a sunburn ? So sexy when the skin peels off!” said a Facebook user.
“This would make a great movie today if it was about a girl from the 21st century who was looking to get married, found this article and then tried each one of these. What a hoot!” said another
You can see Kim’s original post below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
https://www.facebook.com/kim.marxkuczynski/posts/2146971265314053
