Dance Hall Days : : Intimacy and Leisure Among Working-Class Immigrants in the United States / / Randy McBee.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: McBee, Randy,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2000]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2000
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

The rise of commercialized leisure coincided with the arrival of millions of immigrants to America's cities. Conflict was inevitable as older generations attempted to preserve their traditions, values, and ethnic identities, while the young sought out the cheap amusements and sexual freedom which the urban landscape offered. At immigrant picnics, social clubs, and urban dance halls, Randy McBee discovers distinct and highly contested gender lines, proving that the battle between the ages was also one between the sexes. Free from their parents and their strict rules governing sexual conduct, working women took advantage of their time in dance halls to challenge conventional gender norms. They routinely passed certain men over for dances, refused escorts home, and embraced the sensual and physical side of dance to further accentuate their superior skills and ability on the dance floor. Most men felt threatened by women's displays of empowerment and took steps to thwart the changes taking place. Accustomed to street corners, poolrooms, saloons, and other all-male get-togethers, working men tried to transform the dance hall into something that resembled these familiar hangouts. McBee also finds that men frequently abandoned the commercial dance hall for their own clubs, set up in the basements of tenement flats. In these hangouts, working men established rules governing intimacy and leisure that allowed them to regulate the behavior of the women who attended club events. The collective manner in which they behaved not only affected the organization of commercial leisure but also men and women's struggles with and against one another to define the meaning of leisure, sexuality, intimacy, and even masculinity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- ONE “Marriages Were a Little Different Then”: Marriages upon Short Acquaintance, and Immigrant, Working-Class Life -- TWO The Era of Large Ballrooms and Famous Bands: The Rise of Commercial Leisure and the Making of a Peer Culture -- THREE “The Girls Here Are Like Crazy”: Working-Class Women’s Heterosocial Leisure and Homosocial Fun -- FOUR “That’s Alright, I Have My Gang Here”: Working-Class Male Culture and the Struggle over Gender, Identity, and Dance -- FIVE “And You Know the Old Saying about Familiarity Breeding Contempt”: Working-Class Male Culture, Social Clubs, and Heterosocial Leisure -- SIX “When It Comes to My Marrying, Boy, There Will Be a Lot of Strings Pulled by My Parents”: Familial Conflict, Commercial Leisure, and Weddings -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author