“Heavy petting was the limit for most couples, and for those who went ‘all the way’ there were often strong guilt feelings and, for the girl at least, the risk of a bad reputation” (Kallen 144). 

• Cliques
• Group Dates
• Public Entertainment

“Sexual activity could result in the loss of reputation—an essential commodity if marriage was to be your sole identity. More important, in the absence of legal abortion, an extramarital pregnancy could be—and almost always was—disastrous.” (Kallen 158)

“Divorce was stigmatized and considered socially unacceptable” (23) for couples in the 50s.

“Her only means of completion and fulfillment was childbearing.” (25)

“Couples were expected to remain loyal to one another, and young males made a visible sign of commitment, usually with the gift of a ring … Charms for the girl’s bracelet, athletic letter sweaters, or matching articles of clothing also served as indicators that a couple dated steadily” (Young 31). 

“Going steady meant a forced intimacy between male and female adolescents, a dangerous combination in the eyes of many adults and child psychologists” (32).

• Teen Pregnancy
• Ridicule from peers
• Heartbreak or depression following failed relationships

“As the decade drew to a close, the custom nonetheless remained popular among youth and their elder’s fears became statistics: out of wedlock births rose sharply and no one found any easy solutions to the age old problems associated with sex and adolescence” (Young 32).

“Espousing a somewhat libertine philosophy of sexual freedom and materialism, the magazine [Playboy] managed to hire the best authors for both fiction and articles” (Young 149).

“According to cultural historian Beth Bailey, the word date was probably originally used as a lower-class slang word for booking an appointment with a prostitute. However, by the turn of the 20th century we find the word being used to describe lower-class men and women going out socially to public dances, parties and other meeting places, primarily in urban centers where women had to share small apartments and did not have spacious front parlors in their homes to which to invite men to call” (Burzumato).

“Due primarily to this scarcity of men, two things happened in the United States after World War II pertaining to marriage: Marriage rates climbed, and the average age of those marrying went down” (Burzumato). 

• Loss of men in WW2
• People began to have to search
• Need for stability and family/love after the hardships of war

“If the average age of first marriages was dropping (around age 18 for women and 20 for men) then the preparation for marriage — the shopping around, if you will — had to begin much earlier than that.”

“For instance, there had to be some visible token (class ring, letterman’s sweater or jacket) given to the one with whom you were going out. Additionally, the relationships were exclusive: Neither boy nor girl could date or pay much attention to anyone of the opposite sex. Obviously, most of these steady relationships did not result in marriage, oftentimes not lasting more than a few days or a few weeks” (Burzumato).

“And I knew that in spite of all the roses and kisses and restaurant dinners a man showered on a woman before he married her, what he secretly wanted when the wedding service ended was for her to flatten out underneath his feet like Mrs. Willard's kitchen mat.” (Plath 85)

“The trouble was, I hated the idea of serving men in any way. I wanted to dictate my own thrilling letters.” (Plath 76)

“My father had been married before, so he needed a divorce—my father said to her, ‘Whew, that’s a relief, now we can stop pretending and be ourselves’?—and from that day on my mother never had a minute’s peace” (Plath 85).

“The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself...” (Plath 83)

“He made me feel I was much more sexy and experienced than he was and that everything he did like hugging and kissing and petting was simply what I made him feel like doing out of blue, he couldn’t help it and didn’t know it came about.” (Plath 70)

“Teen dating in the 1950s was full of expectations and rules.” (“Dating in the 1950s Was No Picnic”)

• “Sixty years ago, signaling your arrival by honking from the curb would have ensured you'd never be dating anyone on that block again!” (“Dating in the 1950s Was No Picnic”)
• "’When a boy takes a girl home after a date, he should escort her to the door and help her open it.’” (“Dating in the 1950s Was No Picnic”)