If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that the concept of 'dating' was once considered a scandalous public activity, far removed from the private rituals of the past?
- Have you ever wondered why modern courtship often feels like a full-time job, and how our romantic lives became so closely tied to the economy?
- Are you curious about how the 'rules' of flirtation have evolved over the centuries, and what that means for the way we use apps like Tinder today?
Listen to Labor of Love — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from Labor of Love
- Understand how socioeconomic and cultural shifts, from the Industrial Revolution to the rise of consumerism, have continuously transformed the rules of dating.
- Discover how the influx of working-class women into cities during the Industrial Revolution moved courtship out of supervised private parlors and into public spaces.
- Learn why modern dating apps match users based on consumer preferences by tracing the phenomenon back to the consumer-driven culture of early twentieth-century shopgirls.
- Find out how marginalized groups creatively navigated harsh societal obstacles to romance, from gay individuals using secret clothing codes to black domestic workers attending Harlem rent parties.
- See how the 1950s fad of 'going steady' shocked older generations by shifting the purpose of dating from a strict search for a spouse to casually exploring different partners.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from Labor of Love
Mind Map
Labor of Love
Core Premise
Dating methods are driven by socioeconomic and cultural shifts
Economic forces heavily dictate how individuals choose romantic partners
Industrial Revolution
Working Class Courtship
Middle Class Courtship
1900s Consumerism
The Shopgirl Influence
Consumption-Based Dating
Marginalized Dating (1900s)
LGBTQ+ Community
Black Domestic Workers
1950s 'Going Steady'
New Dating Fads
Premarital Intimacy
1960s Sexual Revolution
Free Love Era
Consumerist Sex Media
1980s AIDS Epidemic
End of Casual Sex
Safe Sex Movement
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 6
How did the Industrial Revolution change courtship for the working class compared to the middle class?
Labor of Love — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Women moving into cities during the Industrial Revolution reshaped courtship across America for good.
Chapter 3: In the 1900s, a booming American economy turned dating into consumption and taste driven choices.
Chapter 4: In the 1900s, gay people and black women found strategies to bypass society’s strict dating barriers.
Chapter 5: Looser dating norms in the 1950s unsettled the nerves and morals of earlier generations to a degree.
Chapter 6: The sexual revolution granted men and women freedom to enjoy dating and engage in premarital sex without stigma.
Chapter 7: The AIDS epidemic slammed the brakes on casual sex, first for gay men, then the public as fear spread widely.
Labor of Love Summary & Overview
Labor of Love (2016) is your guide to the history of dating. These blinks walk you through the social, cultural and economic shifts that have shaped modern rituals of courtship and explain the curious fads and fashions of flirtation that have come and gone through the ages.
Who Should Listen to Labor of Love?
- People who love to flirt or are serial daters
- Students of psychology or the social sciences
- Anyone who uses Tinder
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