Women Becoming Dumb

Back in 1926, art historian and cultural critic Dudley Crafts Watson sounded the alarm on a looming problem. The modern American woman, he believed, was fast becoming a "statis dumb bunny" because labor-saving devices were allowing her too much free time which she spent amusing herself with frivolous entertainment, instead of improving her mind.

Today, Watson is best known because he became the guardian of Orson Welles. His warning about the dumbing down of our culture actually sounds like what a lot of cultural critics say. The only unusual thing about it is his focus on women alone.


The Ogden Standard-Examiner - Apr 2, 1926


Dudley Crafts Watson
     Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 19, 2015
     Category: Culture and Civilization | Stupidity | 1920s





Comments
Sour grapes, denigrating what he can't have by the look of him. What a mean scowl on him. 😡
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 01/19/15 at 09:02 AM
Please explain to me how making beds, baking and cleaning house helped women improve their brains and how 14 hours per day of those activities allowed them to have time to go into cultural things.
Posted by ScoutC on 01/19/15 at 09:36 AM
It doesn't he is/was a pos male chauvinist pig.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 01/19/15 at 09:59 AM
I have the feeling he grew up in a family where his mother had a cook, a maid and a cleaning lady. Her 14 hours were just spent giving orders.
Posted by BMN on 01/19/15 at 10:11 AM
Sorry but this dude saw the handwriting on the wall, my friends. The woman who saw swastika's in Christmas wrapping paper last Dec. has noticed Satanic Pentagrams in school bus tail lights.
Click Here
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 01/19/15 at 10:46 AM
I had the same thought on seeing the portrait - "Who stuck a lemon in that guy's puss?"

BTW, you just know things started really going downhill when the 19th Amendment passed?
Posted by KDP on 01/19/15 at 12:47 PM
@ Expat - Women should not drive, vote, speak without permission, take care of the house and children, and pleasure their husband on request. 😉
Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 01/19/15 at 06:00 PM
@BD - Since you did not use a contradictory conjunction / verb combination (e.g. -"BUT should" or "YET ought to") after the "speak without permission" bit, the "not" applies to all of the activities listed.

@Patty - That's putting it mildly.

@ KDP - I don't think the lemon is in his puss, if ya know what I mean.
Posted by ScoutC on 01/19/15 at 06:27 PM
@ScoutC ... WU grammar/spelling police badge awarded to you.
Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 01/19/15 at 06:34 PM
Dudley needs to get "pleasured" himself, way too serious looking.
Posted by Gator Guy on 01/19/15 at 09:05 PM
I had to laugh when he mentioned playing bridge. It is not a game for mental lightweights. "Angry Birds", now, is a different matter...
Posted by tadchem on 01/20/15 at 03:06 PM
@BD - Thank you. I accept with pleasure.
Posted by ScoutC on 01/20/15 at 08:49 PM
He's a cultural critic after all, he has to look critical.
Posted by RobK on 01/21/15 at 11:13 AM
I dunno, but check out that 'stache! I've been searching for my "new look" and I think I found it! All those dumb chicks out there will just love it!
Posted by Jeremy M Brown on 02/04/15 at 03:58 PM
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