The Rules: A dating handbook

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2020

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Valentine's Day 1995, authors Sherrie Schneider and Ellen Fein published a dating handbook called The Rules: Time Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr Right. The book advised women that if they wanted to find a husband they should not approach a man first or pay for themselves on dates. Criticised in some quarters as anti-feminist, it soon became a bestseller, with celebrity fans from Beyonce to Meghan Markle. Lucy Burns speaks to Sherrie Schneider about creating a cultural phenomenon.

(Photo: Groom and bride exchanging wedding ring. Credit: Wavebreakmedia/iStock)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC sounds. Choosing what to
0:32.1	watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:36.5	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:41.5	telly we share what we've been watching.
0:43.7	Cladie Aide!
0:45.7	Loads of games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:48.2	Lovely.
0:49.0	Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:51.2	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:54.7	searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC sounds.
1:00.3	Hi and thanks for downloading witness history from the BBC World Service
1:07.1	first-hand accounts of the moments that shaped our world. I'm Lucy Burns and
1:11.6	today a revolution in the world of romance with the publication on Valentine's Day 1995 of a best-selling dating handbook called The rules. So it's the early 1990s and Sherry Schneider is working as a
1:28.8	journalist in New York. And I really wanted to get married. I love my career. I love my friends. I love living in the city, but I wanted to get married.
1:37.0	She was talking about it to her friend, Ellen Fine.
	...

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