Abstract
Strict rules of chaperonage were introduced into U.S. society in the 1880s. They were considered to have taken a firm hold by 1900, but by the 1920s, not even chaperonage of engaged couples was deemed necessary. Focusing on New York's high society, this study looks at how the representation of chaperonage in etiquette discourse intersected with the shaping of gender and class relations and with the construction of a national identity. More specifically, it considers how chaperons were conceptualized as protective shields designed to police the sexuality ofyoung, unmarried women while, at the same time, chaperonage contributed to the modernizing forces that brought about its own abandonment.
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