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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. On what television show did Beth Bailey appear on when she was a senior in college?

2. Who does the author say gentlemen callers left their cards with in Chapter 1, "Calling Cards and Money"?

3. Going steady stopped being a guaranteed path to what, according to the author in Chapter 2, "The Economy of Dating”?

4. According to the author in the Introduction, courtship is the process of what?

5. By 1959, nearly half of all women married before what age, according to the author in Chapter 2, "The Economy of Dating”?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author describe the process of a young woman’s coming of age in accepting callers in Chapter 1, "Calling Cards and Money"?

2. Who had the most power and control within the calling system of courtship? How is this role described?

3. What subject did Beth Bailey discuss on a talk show in the 1970s? On what show did she appear?

4. What values were involved in the early system of dating? What was scorned within this early system?

5. How was marketing involved in the evolution of women’s idealized beauty in the 1950s and 1960s?

6. To what demographic does Beth Bailey align the system of dating in the Introduction?

7. What arguments did experts make regarding the public nature of dating, according to the author in the Introduction?

8. How did the demographics of the sexes change during World War II? How did this affect courtship?

9. What physical asset became idealized during the 1950s and 1960s, according to the author in Chapter 3, "The Worth of a Date"?

10. How did the emergence of dating change the values of consumption, according to the author in the Introduction?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and analyze the courtship system of “calling.” When did this system originate? How did it evolve over time? What differences existed between the American system of calling and the systems in Europe?

Essay Topic 3

Define and discuss gender identity and its evolution in the past 100 years. How have “traditional” masculine and feminine roles been defined? When did these begin to change? What impact did those changes have on the culture of courtship?

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