Today is Sadie Hawkins Day! Run like the wind! Don’t let your pace falter!
As many of us from what is all too quickly becoming the senior generation know, Sadie Hawkins Day is a day of reversal. It comes from a culture not at all like our own today. A culture where women were not equal with men. They were the weaker sex, the delicate creatures and at times even “the little woman”.
Sadie Hawkins was first introduced Li’l Abner.
http://www.lil-abner.com/sadiehawk.html
Al Capp brought out the concept that on February 29th, a girl could marry a man if she could catch him. It has been a part of our culture ever since.
Of course, this comes from the dark ages when men would put women on a pedestal, open doors for them, help them in and out of autos and up and down stairs. The days when men would not sit until all the ladies in the room were properly seated. By properly I mean holding the chair and gently sliding it in place. In those dark times before woman’s liberation, men would work hard sometimes even work a second job (called moonlighting then) so that his wife could be home with the children. The children were better off because they were cared for by the ones who loved them most.
Sadie Hawkins doesn’t mean much today. Women today have achieved equality (well, almost). They are no longer placed in high regard, on a pedestal to be cherished and honored. They are employers to be obeyed at work. Men no longer stand when a lady enters a room, after all, she puts her pants on the same way they do. Hold a door for a lady? Not unless she is old, infirm (or perhaps) drop dead gorgeous. Give up a seat on a bus? You’ve got to be kidding!
Woman have come a long way since 1937 when Sadie was introduced. She would have a hard time today. She would not understand why woman had tried so hard to become “equal”.
