Wedding World of the Past: PART 3: Wedding Night and hygiene

1950: half of all brides were virgins OR half of all brides were not virgins!

Esquire Etiquette: The groom should get the hotel room in advance "so that you can spare [your bride] the possible embarrassment of standing around in the lobby thinking she looks like a newlywed"

Evelyn Millis Duvall: Being Married: "Few Women enter marriage sexually awakened and ready for complete response in the sex act. Many American girls are brought up to be 'nice,' to repulse the advances of men, and to refrain from any genital stimulation. Marriage demands a completely different pattern of behavior, and it is extremely difficult to remake oneself overnight."

(1950) Drs. Willy Vander and Fisher: Illustrated Encyclopedia of Sex: for women who don't become uninhibited lovers, " not only imperfect wives" but "bad mothers unsuited for the task of bringing up children." Husband suffering, " a discordant married life as a result" might be, "impeded and injured in [his] professional progress."

1946 Lysol ad


There is a lot more information in the book so check it out. Interesting to think how these ads influenced our mothers and how this has thus had an impact on our perception of ourselves and our weddings. What do you think?