In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Are You Popular?

Cara

Via Sociological Images, I thought this video 1947 educational video “Are You Popular?” was a real riot:

While discussing dating etiquette for boys to a small extent, it mostly explains how good girls and bad girls each behave — with good girls of course going out of their way to “look nice” and make everyone around them feel comfortable. Perhaps most importantly of all, it explains how the girls who “park with all the boys” aren’t really popular, but just think they are. Of course, going parking with a girl they’re not committed to seemingly does not not cause the boys’ popularity to suffer. But hey, they do have to pay for everything on the dates.

Rigid gender role policing for all involved — what nice, wholesome fun.

13 thoughts on Are You Popular?

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  2. When a boy brags about taking you out, if he finds out that you’ve been with all the boys, he’ll feel less important! If you want to be popular, be sure not to undercut male sexual boasting with your SLUTTING AROUND!!

  3. What an unintentionally hilarious video! As I wrote in my response, what struck me most was not how “slutty” the girl who parked was, but what rude, disrespectful pricks the guys who hooked up with her were.

  4. Wow, I tried watching this, but I honestly can’t get past the one minute mark without making sarcastic and obnoxious comments. Someone should do a MST3K-ing of this video. XD

  5. Yeah, the “slutty” girl was…friendly, outgoing, seemed to know what they were interested in as hobbies…and they just wouldn’t talk to her.
    The “good”–and more manipulative–girl was the one who didn’t seem to have any hobbies or interests of her own, offered to help more people than she realistically could without checking what those commitments entailed, and stood around at the milk spigot thing watching the room passively until someone invited her to sit with them.
    As a bonus, they invited her over because they like how she dresses, she’s “equally interested in girls and boys,” and doesn’t have a scandalous reputation yet. Because all that’s about the content of her character.

    Also: these are drama geeks? Seriously?

  6. God no wonder so many people think of the 1950s as the golden years, what a load of propaganda! All everyone cared about was being popular, looking good and having wholesome fun!

  7. As a bonus, they invited her over because they like how she dresses, she’s “equally interested in girls and boys,”

    I found that part oddly arousing.

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  10. As a bonus, they invited her over because they like how she dresses, she’s “equally interested in girls and boys,”

    I found that part oddly arousing.

    Yeah, I remember that made a friend of mine particularly popular in high school.

  11. Rigid gender role policing for all involved — what nice, wholesome fun.

    Rigid gender role as you say. Is it not what feminism is all about?

    “Nearly every large college campus and many smaller ones have a Women’s Studies department. There are over five hundred women’s studies departments and over one hundred colleges that offer a degree program in women’s studies. There is not a single degree program or department in men’s studies in the U.S. It is difficult to get exact numbers, but it appears that there are fewer than a dozen classes labeled men’s studies being offered in colleges anywhere. Some that are labeled men’s studies are in fact anti-male. Kenyon College, for example, has a Men’s Studies program that in the words of one professor is in opposition to, “The white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied, Christian, middle-class norm.”

  12. Wait. Hang on. Everyone, quiet down for a second!

    Do you hear that? That noise? What is it? So small, yet so beautiful, almost mournful in fact. Why it’s . . .

    Oh, it’s the world’s tiniest violin playing, specially for our previous commenter and all of the other privileged men in the world who get so very sad when all of the focus is taken off of them, or put on them so that their privilege can be examined.

    Never mind. As you were.

  13. I see the video as nothing but youthful exuberance. You must know that most boys do not actually show their natural character when they are with girls. Even the cool headed boys try to show that they are “real” men by acting in line to look how they want the girls to see them.

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