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Ridiculous History is well-known for finding the weirdest, most unusual tidbits of history to liven up our learning, and in this two-part episode, hosts Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown are joined by Eli and Diana Banks, hosts of sister series Ridiculous Romance, to talk about weird courtship rituals through history. In part one, Ben and Diana share several strange ways to woo your woman in Puritan times, plus dive into the disturbing cultural practice in Mauritania of force-feeding young girls because heavier bodies are considered more attractive. In part two, Eli and Noel take the lead to explore Bhutanese “night-hunting” and Cambodian love huts. Either Tinder and OKCupid might not seem so bad after these episodes – or you may find a new way to land a lover!
First, they tell us about how Puritans would visit their prospective partners in their family homes, chaperoned by the girl’s grandmother sitting between them. Not a lot of chances for privacy – so the Puritans got creative. They would use a six-foot long tube to whisper sweet nothings into each other’s ears without the rest of the family hearing! All four laugh about how inconspicuous all that secrecy really was – wouldn’t grandma know exactly what was going on once you pulled out that giant tube? But a lack of privacy was nothing new to the Puritans: Most families all slept in the same room together for warmth, which may be why they would allow a prospective husband to come over and sleep in the same bed as their daughter before marriage – once the daughter was tied into a sack, of course. How romantic!
In Mauritania, Bhutan, and Cambodia, cultures clash with our own Western sensibilities. While we value thin bodies, in Mauritania, fat is where it’s at. Though the practice has led to some detrimental health effects for young women in Mauritania, it’s not like Western cultures have a strong leg to stand on; our own obsession with thinness and thigh gaps has led to eating disorders and other problems. Either way, beauty standards worldwide can lead to issues with not only physical, but also mental, health. In Bhutan, the practice of night-hunting is meant to put the power of a courtship into women’s hands, but it doesn’t always work that way – mostly thanks to out-of-towners who take advantage of the local tradition. Similarly, love huts in Cambodia are surprisingly feminist in origin, but as times change, so do traditions. Hear about all these strange courtship rituals from around the world – complete with jokes – on this two-part episode of Ridiculous History.
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