{"id":16639,"date":"2014-12-03T08:51:37","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T13:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=16639"},"modified":"2014-12-03T08:53:19","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T13:53:19","slug":"how-slut-shaming-went-down-and-was-smacked-down-in-a-1954-romance-comic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/03\/how-slut-shaming-went-down-and-was-smacked-down-in-a-1954-romance-comic\/","title":{"rendered":"How slut-shaming went down (and was smacked down) in a 1954 romance comic"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading the September\/October 1954 issue of the comic Dream Book of Romance<\/em><\/a> (as one does), and came across a moment that had me cheering.<\/p>\n

\"DreamBookofRomance8Cover\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the lead story “Woman of Shame,” after Nancy’s father dies, she drops out of college and takes a job as a night club “snapshot girl” in order to support herself and her aged mother.<\/p>\n

She’s embarrassed by having to wear the kind of skimpy outfit you’ve probably seen on cigarette girls in old movies, at least until the seamstress dressing her explains that, “It’s a job just like any other job!”<\/p>\n

\"DreamBookofRomance19542\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But that’s not the moment that had me cheering, “You go, girl!” Which I hope doesn’t sound creepy coming out of the mouth of an older, white cis guy. (You let me know if it does, OK?)<\/p>\n

Nancy’s boyfriend Tom tracks her down at the club, and is horrified by where she’s working and what she’s wearing, because, “I thought you were a decent girl!”<\/p>\n

How did Nancy react? Like this!<\/p>\n

\"DreamBookofRomanceSeptOct1954\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kudos to Nancy, and to whichever (unfortunately uncredited) comics writer decided to let her give slut-shaming the smackdown it deserved.<\/p>\n

You’ll be glad to know that Nancy and dudebro Tom do not<\/em> end up together—and that her grey-haired mother is fine with how Nancy is earning a living.<\/p>\n

\"DreamBookofRomance19543\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’d say that’s pretty progressive for 1954!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reading the September\/October 1954 issue of the comic Dream Book of Romance (as one does), and came across a moment that had me cheering. In the lead story “Woman of Shame,” after Nancy’s father dies, she drops out of college and takes a job as a night club “snapshot girl” in order to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-16639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-comics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16639"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16659,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16639\/revisions\/16659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}