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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word from the book means having qualities traditionally ascribed to women?

2. According to the author in Chapter 4, "Sex Control,” parents tried to retain what of American womanhood?

3. Bailey proposes that metaphors of economy replaced metaphors of what in the Epilogue?

4. Sigmund Freud was known as the founding father of what?

5. What category does the author assert did not exist in the nineteenth century?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was blamed for the breakdown in gender identity? Why?

2. How do American youth feel about the lack of clarity in the rules of contemporary dating according to the author in the Epilogue?

3. What metaphors have replaced the metaphors of economy, according to the author in the Epilogue?

4. How was the crisis of femininity treated in mid-twentieth century America?

5. What did Ernest Burgess advocate doing in order to address the issue of courtship in America?

6. How did Freudian psychology influence the perceptions of the sexes in the mid-twentieth century?

7. How did the rise of a national youth culture change the power structure in America, according to the author in Chapter 4, "Sex Control"?

8. What did the new sexual innovations represent symbolically to American youth in the period between World War I and the sexual revolution?

9. What societal movement was Ernest Burgess associated with? What were the goals of this movement?

10. How did physical displays of affection evolve in the early part of the twentieth century?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the impact of the Industrial Revolution on courtship in America and in Europe. Where did the Industrial Revolution spread after originating in England? What new demographic resulted from the Industrial Revolution? How did the emerging middle class impact the culture of wooing?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the emergence of school proms and the etiquette and culture surrounding them. When did these formal dances first originate? How were they supervised? When and why did the traditions of corsages and boutonnières appear? What costs were associated with early proms?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the emergence of the “large-breasted woman” as an American ideal of beauty and worth. When did this ideal originate? Who and what were responsible for this emerging ideal? Are large-breasted women still idealized? How related are breasts with the concept of sexuality in the media?

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