Countless magazines lining the checkout aisles of grocery stores promise to reveal the secrets to a happy, healthy relationship. Whether that advice is actually helpful, though, has certainly varied over the years.
It's no surprise that women had to fight in order to be considered equal in all avenues of life, including their romantic prospects. Reading the words of so-called experts from back in the 1920s all the way through the 1950s is still seriously jarring.
And it wasn't just the magazines aimed at women that made ridiculous claims about rules women should follow to keep their man happy: reverends and physicians were more than happy to offer their own tips for a "successful" relationship.
As you might have guessed, it all essentially boils down to the woman diminishing herself and placing the man's needs before her own. Take a look below to see just how much ladies were expected to sacrifice for their relationships.
Be sure to let us know in the comments if we missed any bizarre advice you remember hearing back in the day.
And don't forget to SHARE with your friends!
[H/T: Mental Floss, Daily Mail]
Thumbnail Sources: Flickr
1. Be Smart, But Not Too Smart
"College males tell us that they want a girl for a wife who is intelligent but makes them feel they are still more intelligent!" — Dr. Clifford R. Adams
2. Ensure His Morale Comes First
"Remember, your most important job is to build up and maintain his ego (which gets bruised plenty in business). Morale is a woman’s business." — Edward Podolsky
3. Keep Nagging To A Minimum
"I verily believe that the happiness of homes is destroyed more frequently by the habit of nagging than by any other one… If he needs peace to make life bearable, he will have to look for it elsewhere than in his own house. And it is quite likely that he will look." — Reverend Alfred Henry Tyrer
4. Plan Your Day Around His
"Change around your schedule so that you will always be there when your husband needs you, accept his emotional distortion, and to build up his self-esteem." — Dr. Clifford R. Adams
5. Learn Plenty Of Recipes
"When she does cook, she should cook, and not be, as somebody said, a mere can opener." — Dr. William Josephus Robinson
6. Don't Talk To Wait Staff
"The man always does the ordering. Never ask the waiter yourself for anything." — Woman's Own
7. Don't Be Overzealous In The Bedroom
"Just as the vampire sucks the blood of its victims in their sleep while they are alive, so does the woman vampire suck the life and exhaust the vitality of her male partner — or 'victim.'" — Dr. William Josephus Robinson
8. Don't Tell Him If You're Not In The Mood
"To the man it makes no difference in the pleasurableness of the act whether you are frigid or not unless he knows that you are frigid. And he won’t know unless you tell him, and what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him." — Dr. William Josephus Robinson
9. Never Delay Dinner
"A social service meeting, an afternoon tea, a matinee, a whatnot, is no excuse for there being no dinner ready when a husband comes home from a hard day’s work." — Reverend Alfred Henry Tyrer
10. Don't Bother Him With Your Chores
"Men like a clean house, but fussing about all the time, upsetting the house in order to keep it clean, will drive a man from the house elsewhere." — Dr. William Josephus Robinson
11. Keep Yourself Meticulously Tidy
"The wife, whether the bride of a day or the bride of 30 years, should be clean. Literally from the crown of her head to her very toes, she should be clean, so clean as to be able to stand inspection even in complete nudity." — Dr. William Josephus Robinson
Did we miss any absurd advice for women that you remember hearing about from the past? Let us know below, and be sure to SHARE with your friends!
