Conduct Becoming and Unbecoming of Students: Public Discourses on Dating, Sexuality, Gender, and Consent at Stanford University, 1919-1941

<a href="https://embed.stanford.edu/iframe/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpurl.stanford.edu%2Fmg147fk3936" class="su-underline">Show Content</a>

Abstract/Contents

Abstract: While many consider the 1960s and 1970s to be a watershed moment when college campuses erupted with discussion of sex and consent; but that was not the first time students and their institution talked about these important topics. Utilizing archival administrative documents, student papers, and student publications of the era, Julia’s thesis explores how Stanford students of the 1920s and 1930s constructed and discussed heterosocial and heterosexual relationships, gender roles and expectations, and definitions of consent. After reconstructing the physical campus, its history with regards to coeducation, and the administration’s role in student life, the paper reveals that students engaged in a culture later coined “rating and dating,” which was intensely public facing and reliant on the conspicuous consumption of the Roaring 20s. Further, students were sexually active and open about their sexuality, both with each other and in publications. Finally, they conceived of female sexuality as a publicly determined entity, and female consent as constantly given. This culture is likely the foundations of the culture in which Brock Turner committed assault.

Type of resource	text
Publication date	May 23, 2023

Subject	Education, Higher
Subject	College student newspapers and periodicals
Subject	Sex customs
Subject	Dating (Social customs)
Subject	Sexual consent
Genre	Text
Genre	Thesis

DOI	https://doi.org/10.25740/mg147fk3936
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/mg147fk3936

Use and reproduction: User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal license (CC0).

Preferred citation: Milani, J. (2023). Conduct Becoming and Unbecoming of Students: Public Discourses on Dating, Sexuality, Gender, and Consent at Stanford University, 1919-1941. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/mg147fk3936. https://doi.org/10.25740/mg147fk3936.

Undergraduate Honors Theses, Department of History, Stanford University

Loading usage metrics...