May 22, 2008 8:42 AM
Wives - how would you rate in 1939?
George W. Crane, MD, was a marriage counselor and wrote a syndicated national newspaper column called "The Worry Clinic." He developed a test in the late 1930s called the Marital Rating Scale -- Wife's Chart. Here's the fist page of the test.
The test was designed to give couples feedback on their marriages. Either husbands or wives could take the test, which rated wives in a variety of areas. For instance, if your wife "uses slang or profanity," she would get a score of five demerits. On the other hand, if she "reacts with pleasure and delight to marital congress," she would receive 10 merits. The test taker would add up the total number of merits and demerits to receive a raw score, which would categorize the wife on a scale from "very poor" to "very superior."
Tiabla has reproduced the 9-page booklet - with 50 questions each for husbands and wives - at Flickr.
Comments
How funny. I LOVE that warming cold feet on husband's legs made the list. Even though it's--ahem-- minus one for me.
Posted by: Marian | May 22, 2008 4:05 PM
I think I would like to become a man and time-travel back to 1939. That sounds like a great wife! LOL
Posted by: Stretch Mark Mama | May 22, 2008 4:29 PM
I had to laugh about the cold feet and the red nail polish. The good doctor would have a field day with my black toenail polish!
Looking at this, some of our so-called progress has been good. :) So how did the doc rate the husbands? I could think of some things for both columns. :)
Posted by: Lucy | May 22, 2008 5:50 PM
