I dont think it's indirect at all. We measure self-awareness in animals by their ability too detect reflections. Being in front of a camera forces immediate self-identification with the body because the lens, and the photographers eyes works as a series of reflecting mirrors
Yes, I think women informally chaperon. However, that is different to a formal situation where the neighbours would say, “Did you hear! Julia’s girl went out without a chaperon.” *scandal*. Chaperons tended to be older, not peers—some functional overlap, but different.
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My immediate impression is that what's changed isnt so much the role of chaperon, but the date itself. If always had the sense that being in public for these things, to women, are a neccesary evil, and that they would prefer the dating to happen as much as possible in "secret".
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In a sense I think the chaperoning happens in secret to avoid the same sense of reality that the camera invokes
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this might in great part be colored by the particular women who find people like me attractive, but I think there is some degree universality to it
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1. Could be a cultural difference between the UK and US. I don’t know a lot about the history of courtship, but anthropologists in 40s identified differences between US/UK in the US girls made the first move while UK the man was meant to make the move.
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2. During the war, this led to dating problems between US servicemen and British women, bc nobody did anything when they were meant to. US servicemen saw British women as cold while British servicemen saw US women as too forward.
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3. Even as late as the 1970s, you see people like C. Hitchens writing about how refreshingly forward American women were about sex. But I suspect the deep behaviour of humans is not so different and probably not so different between individuals either.
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4. Women have an incentive to keep dating secret to maintain the appearance of not being sluts, and also to conceal what they’re doing from other men they’re cheating on (planning to cheat on).
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Neither UK or US based, but your point stands nonetheless. 4. might be where I was getting at in some sense, just less explicit. I dont think it has to be deliberate malice, overtly planned and such.
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