OSLEP, Recap of Days 2 & 3

Well, Day 2 was just...long. And intense. I can't even begin to explain everything we went over...plus, I'd think it'd bore you. Just know that families changed a lot from frontier to colonial to Victorian days...and such. Yeah.

Today was much more interesting. The basics:

We discussed the late Victorian era.
We watched a Newsreel over Marriage and Divorce that was made in 1948.
We broke into 2 groups - Group 1 speculated the future of marriage. Group 2 came up with historical and sociological arguments for and against same sex marriage.
At the end of the day, we watched a dating etiquette video from the 1950s, so awesome. And then we watched a 30 minute GE advertisement from the same era. Product placement was cracking us up while we watched a story about how appliances made life easier and even got a date for the young girl in the video. So great.

Anyways, Fun tidbits learned/talked about today:

During the late 19th century, there was a redefinition of love/gender. Women became more pure. They used to be considered the lusty sex, but in this era they were transformed into almost asexual beings that didn't even enjoy sex.

Since men respected their wives and were worried about the purity of them, they turned to prostitutes instead.
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There's a bit more, but that's the most interesting stuff. It is now 10pm and I'm so tired! Time for bed! Ha

OSLEP = Oklahoma Sages Lampadephors Excitement Personnel

Okay, maybe it really stands for Oklahoma Scholars Leadership Enrichment Program, which sounds just as prestigious, but not as interesting. But anywho, for the next 4 days I will be taking part in an OSLEP course with the topic of Marriage and Family. Our leader for the week is Dr. Stephanie Coontz. She's world-renowned in her field, you should check her out. It's an honor to get to study with her and learn from her. Today, she nodded her head in agreement (and appreciation and astounded awe?...probably not) at something I mentioned in class. I was so proud.

Well, I am just assuming that I shouldn't keep all this awesome knowledge to myself. Therefore, I will regurgitate what I have learned for you all out there in cyber land. Enjoy these few factoids about Marriage and Family, Day 1:

Please realize, the institution of marriage has been changing for centuries, with the MOST traditional form of marriage being one man and many women.

Before the Golden Age of Marriage in the 1950s and for most of history, it was ridiculous to marry for love. The French thought that love was a "derangement of the mind". According to Dr. Coontz' book "Marriage, a History" the Chinese didn't have a word for 'love' between husband and wife. Instead, "''love' described an illicit, disapproved relationship". The Fulbe people of Cameroon still do not see love as "a legitimate emotion."

Yeah, these ideas seem "radical" to those of us who have grown up in the suburbia U.S. and who have always thought that love and marriage go hand in hand....nope.

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In the 1600s, the definition of happiness was order, social order especially. The poor were poor and the rich were rich because that's where God had wanted them to be. They had a purpose being in that position and it was silly to try to change your proportion of yourself...

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Ahem... today, more college - educated adults are more likely to say that it is acceptable to be divorced or to cohabitate (i.e. live together, but not be married). High school only educated adults are more likely to say that divorce and cohabitation are completely unacceptable.
HOWEVER, college educated adults are LESS likely to cohabitate or get divorced. While high school only educated adults are MORE likely to do either. YEAH