5 comments

Women. Voting. Prohibition of alcohol.

Nov 1, 2024, 7:19 PM

I am breaking my own rule here. I normally make it a point to not join political discussions on this website, because I am so sick of that shit and want escape from it. But this is a bi-partisan topic and just light hearted.

I have to post it on a strip club website because no one appreciates my brilliance in the outside world. Cut to the chase: We never would have had to go through Prohibition if women hadn't been given the vote! By talking about Prohibition, I have just revealed myself as an Old Fucker. (But calling me an Old Fucker is actually a compliment at this point. There are signs I will soon no longer be a Fucker, just Old.)

So I went to school when they taught history. And was taught women were not legally allowed to vote in the US until 1920. And about the same time, the Prohibition Act went into effect, banning alcohol sales in the US. Of course, longsuffering women were behind the push for that - Carrie Nation, etc. That ban lasted until 1933, when the "Grand Experiment" proved that people were going to get alcohol one way or another, and gave rise to the Al Capone brand of criminal organization to supply the nation's alcohol craving.

Aw shit. I just did some research and learned Prohibition was voted in a few months before women got the vote. (Prohibition was the 18th ammendment to the constitution, and Women's Suffrage was the 19th.)

So my theory was wrong. But it was fun while it lasted. I still recommend it as a way to get some shit started at a party.

No wonder no one will listen to me in the outside world.

comments (5)

Techmanlast year

The Federal Reserve and the income tax were started because the tax on whiskey was the major source of revenue for the government. Women get the vote because of their strength in the Temperance Movement.

ilbbaicnllast year

I don't know how accurate it is, but before The Jazz Age, you get the impression that bars/saloons were only for men and prostitutes. Maybe women getting the vote meant they had to be invited to the party for Prohibition to get repealed.

Rightfieldlast year

And bars didn't have stools around the turn of the 20th century. You stood with one foot on the rail by the floor. What the fuck was that?

And then the spitoons! And those droopy mustaches with tobacco juice.

Those poor prostitutes.

grrlgonebadlast year

as a self-described feminist, and one who took more than a few classes in "women's studies" in college... I will say that there are several holier than thou groups of people throughout history.

The temperance movement was one of them.... as was the "moral majority" group led by Jerry Falwell... and some others. They all seem to think they have the cure for the "moral ills" of the american people.

Are we really that bad? As I am sitting here, putting my almost not there tiny g-strings away (laundry day)... I don't think America is in any kind of moral decline.

Even if it was, banning pornography or drinking... isn't going to get to the cause of it...

I think it just makes those people feel better that they can control others...

drewcareypnwlast year

The only people who voted for the 18th amendment were congressmen and state legislatures, overwhelmingly male at the time. Women did play a role in the activist groups that pressed elected officials for prohibition. Impending suffrage must have been a factor. I could see where the unempowered woman of the time would have seen the banning of alcohol as helpful in managing their men.