Sadie Hawkins in American Life,1937-1957

Abstract

In 1937, Al Capp introduced Sadie Hawkins Day in his Li’l Abner comic strip. In its first year, Americans embraced the day with girl-chase-boy races and girl-ask-boy fall dances. Cream of Wheat used Sadie Hawkins to sell their cereal, further entrenching it in American life. Sadie Hawkins purported to be an empowering opportunity for girls. However, a belief that men feared marriage, even to beautiful women, and that women were always desperate to be dating and married, fueled the passion for this traditional, heteronormative phenomenon. Capp’s misogyny led him to sort single women into desirable and undesirable categories.