A wife rating scale from the 1930s:
This month's edition of the psychology magazine Monitor has an amusing article about a psychometric scale designed in the 1930s for rating the quality of your wife.
It was designed by Dr George W. Crane in an attempt to give couples feedback on their marriages. But although husbands or wives could fill in the scale to rate the wife's 'quality', there is no mention of a similar rating scale that rated the husband's performance.
Apparently, the full scale had 50 merits and 50 demerits of differing value which were subtracted from each other to give the final score.
The Monitor has the first 12 items which are hugely amusing, although I note that an item mentioned in the article - "reacts with pleasure and delight to marital congress" - is not among them, but was apparently worth 10 'merits'. This is equal in value to "Religious - sends children to Sunday school and goes herself".
Personally, I can't believe that "Puts her cold feet on husband at night to warm them" is worth only one 'demerit'. Surely this grievous violation of the sacred bond of marriage should have been looked on more strictly.
i just took the test and now i think you should...
| | |
Take the test! | |
 | teabelly's score 26 As a 1930s wife, I am |
Scoring:
0-24 - Very Poor (Failure)
25-41 - Poor
42-58 - Average
59-75 - Superior
76+ - Very Superior
i didn't know that sex was called "marital congress" in the 1930's. do you think that made congressmen feel super macho?
13 comments:
I am also a poor wife...40
(Secretly glad that I'm not an excellent 1930's wife.)
as a husband, i am "very superior" with a score of 140. tell your friends.
We love keeping up on your travels and your house news. BTW, I scored a 108.I don't know if that's good since times have changed so much.But, at least I was a good wife/mom during some era!
I'm very superior, but as a garlic eating unperfumed gossip who never let her husband sleep in and puts her cold feet on him at night, I'm not sure how.
I just scored Chuck as very superior too
Sooo, the test has revealed what I've always known: Dave is a FAR better 1930's spouse than I am. Oh well. Maybe I should start dressing for breakfast...
yes...i am a very poor wife indeed. so sad how far off we've fallen.
Tonight's exchange as we I read Chuck the test while he was trying to work.
G: Keeps husband's clothes clean and pressed.
C: Speaking of, did you wash white today.
G: No, but don't worry, I didn't check the box.
C: No, seriously, I'm out of underwear.
G: Oh, yeah?
C: Goes into laundry room
Kimber, what was the difference between your and Dave's scores? Chuck was 50 points better than me (and you can see why).
Dave beats me by about 30 points -- the funny thing is, I had him take the test, too. He gave us both lower scores that I did, but the spread was exactly the same. In any case, he is superior... and I am not :-)
well i ranked as a superior wife but i'm really not sure how. i thought i was headed for poor city.
Interesting commentary. Scott and I did both tests, one for ourselves and one for each other. The interesting thing that I found, was that I scored a 63 when I took and a 64 when Scott took it for me. However, Scott scored a 130 when he took the husband one and only 74 when I took it for him!! So, you see most men rate themselves as far more superior than they really are! :) Although, he is still a superior husband...just not as much as he thinks! (And quite honestly, i'm surprised I scored as well as I did.)
A 52. Just average. That's not very interesting - would have liked to have scored very high or very low. Just for entertainment's sake.
Will have to see how hubby scores me later!
47. I am average at EVERYTHING I do. Someday I am going to be really good at cooking, or yoga, or gardening, or anything as long as I can feel what it would be like to be amazing at something. I am anxious to see your house.
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