History 476

Spring 2016

Devine

Study Questions for Julia Grant’s “A ‘Real Boy’ and not a Sissy”

1. What traits and behaviors were associated with a “sissy” in the early twentieth century? What were the traits of a “real” or “normal” boy?

2. How did beliefs about “proper” gender roles in the early 20^th century differ from those of the 19^th century? What effect did this shift in thought have on the way people thought and behaved, especially with regard to how they treated boys?

3. What were reformers in the early 1900’s referring to when they spoke of the “boy problem”? What steps did psychologists such as G. Stanley Hall suggest for solving the “boy problem”?

4. What is the “gang spirit?” How did the “gang spirit” help discourage “sissy” behavior in boys?

5. Why were mothers primarily blamed for creating sissies?

6. More broadly, what does this article tell us about how ideas socially constructed by adults can influence the real world experiences of young people (in this case, boys in the early 20^th century)?

Study Questions for Lisa Jacobson, “Manly Boys and Enterprising Dreamers”

1. Why did advertisers begin marketing to boys in the early 1900s when consumerism had been associated with women throughout most of history?

2. Why did boys prove to be “remarkably influential salesmen” in middle-class families? What attributes did admen see in boys that made them believe that boys were consumer savvy? Why did admen believe these traits gave boys superior consumer authority over their parents?

3. Why did admen believe middle-class boys exercised consumer authority over girls and less-affluent boys?

4. Jacobson argues that “the concept of masculine consumer identity required defense.” Why? How did advertisers seek to “de-sissify” boy consumerism?

5. Why was it important for advertisers to win over the “gang-leader” in boy peer groups?

6. How did advertisers appeal to boys’ desires to be entrepreneurs as well as consumers?

7. Were boys empowered by marketers’ decisions to cater to them? Or did they simply become servants to those who sought to sell products?