Account of a 1920s "Spinster"

In my online Sociology of the Family course, I am mak-- er, encouraging my students to do a bit of research into the laws and social customs that would have defined their dating lives in one of the following years/eras: 1780, 1880, 1920, and 1970. As I wrote in our discussion prompt, "Just like real life, if you’re non-straight, trans, non-White, or so on, this will be especially challenging for you."

I got so excited by my own assignment prompt, I did the assignment, too. (Yeah, I just admitted that.) Anyway, below is my queer, White exploration of dating in the 1920s.

I was born around the turn of the 20th century. Exciting times! Tons of White folks are moving to the city to pursue careers in factories and in the service industries. My farming family is very poor, and my mother nudged me to move to the city and work in a department store in order to snag a rich husband.

While working at the department store, I met another young woman, and we became fast friends. One day at work, she invited me to attend a play with her. Her father owns an automobile, and he drove us to this play. In spite of our chaperone, we had an amazing time and now go on such outings once a week or so. Our outings are very different than the courtings my sisters are used to on the farm; a boy drops by every weekend or so and socializes with her and the family. Thanks to fancy automobiles and the benefits of living in a city, we're able to explore all this city has to offer!

After a few months of these outings, my woman friend and I decided to move into the same small apartment to save on living expenses. Our parents approve of our fiscal responsibility.

Social reformers, politicians, and scientists call two women who love one another "perversions"; psychiatrists quote Freud and say such women should be forced to marry men to cure them of their "immature sexual development." All 50 states have passed laws against "sodomy," which are usually interpreted to mean sexual relations between two men but which can apply to women as well.

Well then, my woman friend and I are merely two women living together as spinsters! I hope we will remain spinsters who live together for the rest of our lives. I am quite fond of my roommate.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodomy_laws_in_the_United_States, https://nypost.com/2016/05/15/the-fascinating-history-of-how-courtship-became-dating/, http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/history.aspx, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/15799

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