The school term was ending and community college sophomore Ginger Hawkins had taken all the tests and quizzes a gal could stand.
Except one…maybe the most important test she would take that year.
Strictly For Girls
Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953
The May issue of The Girl Friend ( and The Boy Friend ) a pulp magazine, had offered 2 gender specific tests for its readers in 1953. The quiz, strictly for girls, asked the question “What are Your Best Fitted for: Love or Career.”
Ginger had put off taking the test till now, nervous to find out the answer.
Sure the saucy sophomore thought, she could conjugate a verb with the best of them and was a wiz at typing but the specter of ending up an old maid loomed over her.
A spinster stenographer swimming in the secretarial pool or a happy homemaker with a loving hubby and children…what would be her fate? Here was her chance to find out the answer to a vital question.
Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953
As her Domestics Arts teacher emphasized “Satisfaction and self-sufficiency might result from a career”, she advised her students but that paled when compared to the “full and complete happiness and satisfaction offered by marriage.”
In the distance, the warm homey smell of her Mom’s rhubarb pie wafted through the house as Ginger took her #2 yellow Dixon pencil in hand and nervously began tackling the quiz.
Career…Just Say No
Answers Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953
With a great sigh of relief Ginger answered “No” to all the questions…. discovering she was best fitted for Love!
Strictly For Boys
Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953
Now that Love was her future, there was just one more test to be taken.
Turning the page of the magazine was another quiz this one strictly for the male species, but was directed to their “girl readers” : “If you want to see how your boy friend rates have him answer these questions!”
Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953. Note: the original owner of the magazine did check off several “yes” answers detracting from his desirability of a good lover
That’s just what she intended her steady Pete to do, answering the Quiz’s question: “Will You Make a Good Lover?”
“Do you wonder how you will rate in the love department?” the article asked provocatively.
Just Say No
A perfect score of “No” meant he would be the kind of boy the girls will go for. Especially the non career girls.
How well did you score?
Envisioning The American Dream 
I’m just slightly more suited for LOVE than for CAREER according to the quiz (by one point!) 😀
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Don’t tell your boss!
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‘Course we know what happened to Ginger. A guy told her she would be great in the movies. Also told her Lana Turner had been discovered in a drug store. What Lana was doing in a drug store we can only guess. Anyway Ginger caught a bus to Hollywood and checked into the Y. After thirty-seven, no make that thirty-eight, auditions, she got a bit part in a horror movie. Since she had great lungs, she played the girl most likely to scream. She went on to do bit parts in twenty more movies. Needing some rest and relaxation, she booked a cruise on the S. S. Minnow. The rest is history as they say in the movies.
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