Scan barcode
A review by josh_paul
Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating by Moira Weigel
4.0
This is a fun book with many amusing anecdotes, but Weigel has an unfortunate tendency to gloss over facts to create a smooth narrative, so I only gave it four stars.
Stuff I liked:
* The book contains several fun sections on various fads over the years, such as the popularity of video dating services in the 80s.
* There are nice summaries of influential books and magazines that I'm not interested enough in to actually read but feel like I ought to get the gist of, such as "The Philosophy of Love," "The Rules," "The Game," and Cosmopolitan's many lists; Based on Weigel's summaries I feel vindicated in my decision not to read any of these things, but the Cliff Notes versions are interesting.
Nitpicky things that bugged me:
* In introducing the concept of planned obsolesce, she mentions Henry Ford's quip that you could get a model-T in any color, as long as it was black, and then says that after World War 2, "GM started making cars in many colors." Both Ford and GM sold cars in many colors long before World War 2. This is a minor point that doesn't matter much on its own, but Weigel is using it to support claims about broader historical trends.
* Another example: in discussing the rising popularity of makeup in the early 20th century, Weigel says that "previously only prostitutes and actresses [wore makeup]." However, the "previously" she's referring to is Victorian England, which was super weird. For much of history, the aristocracy wore makeup (see the portrait gallery in any museum). Weigel attributes the rising popularity of makeup to aggressive marketing and social pressure. Maybe she's right. It seems more likely, though, that the 20th century was a return to historical norms, in which people with money spend it to glitter themselves up in various ways. It's probably true that makeup became far more widespread in the 20th century, but that's because almost all the people who lived earlier were peasant farmers who couldn't afford makeup.
Stuff I liked:
* The book contains several fun sections on various fads over the years, such as the popularity of video dating services in the 80s.
* There are nice summaries of influential books and magazines that I'm not interested enough in to actually read but feel like I ought to get the gist of, such as "The Philosophy of Love," "The Rules," "The Game," and Cosmopolitan's many lists; Based on Weigel's summaries I feel vindicated in my decision not to read any of these things, but the Cliff Notes versions are interesting.
Nitpicky things that bugged me:
* In introducing the concept of planned obsolesce, she mentions Henry Ford's quip that you could get a model-T in any color, as long as it was black, and then says that after World War 2, "GM started making cars in many colors." Both Ford and GM sold cars in many colors long before World War 2. This is a minor point that doesn't matter much on its own, but Weigel is using it to support claims about broader historical trends.
* Another example: in discussing the rising popularity of makeup in the early 20th century, Weigel says that "previously only prostitutes and actresses [wore makeup]." However, the "previously" she's referring to is Victorian England, which was super weird. For much of history, the aristocracy wore makeup (see the portrait gallery in any museum). Weigel attributes the rising popularity of makeup to aggressive marketing and social pressure. Maybe she's right. It seems more likely, though, that the 20th century was a return to historical norms, in which people with money spend it to glitter themselves up in various ways. It's probably true that makeup became far more widespread in the 20th century, but that's because almost all the people who lived earlier were peasant farmers who couldn't afford makeup.