Thursday, August 22, 2019

Twin beds more common than I knew?

Someone in England has written "A Cultural History of Twin Beds", which indicates that they were not that uncommon in the earlier part of the 20th century.   Here are the highlights:
Her key findings reveal that twin beds:
  • Were initially adopted as a health precaution in the late nineteenth century to stop couples passing on germs through exhaled breath.
  • Were seen, by the 1920s, as a desirable, modern and fashionable choice, particularly among the middle classes.
  • Featured as integral elements of the architectural and design visions of avant-garde Modernists such as Le Corbusier, Peter Behrens and Wells Coates.
  • Were (in the early decades of the 20th century) indicative of forward-thinking married couples, balancing nocturnal 'togetherness' with a continuing commitment to separateness and autonomy.
  • Never entirely replaced double beds in the households of middle-class couples but, by the 1930s and 1940s, were sufficiently commonplace to be unremarkable.
  • Enjoyed a century-long moment of prominence in British society and, as such, are invaluable indicators of social customs and cultural values relating to health, modernity and marriage.
The backlash against twin beds as indicative of a distant or failing marriage partnership intensified in the 1950s and by the late 1960s few married couples saw them as a desirable choice for the bedroom.

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