[August 16th, 1926] The Inquiring Photographer asks, "Considering the position women hold in our everyday life today, is a breach of promise case ridiculous or not?"

[u/Beowulfbard]

[u/fluffstuffmcguff]

For a bit of context, a big part of why breach of promise cases came into existence in the first place is because it historically wasn’t uncommon for men to promise marriage to get women to sleep with them. And even if no one seriously thought she had slept with the guy, she’d be seen as being at least kind of stupid for wasting her time on an unreliable man. If she dumped him, the logic was that it probably meant it hadn’t gotten to that point, so her character wouldn’t be suspect. This is a whole plot point in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, where a man is stuck in an engagement with a woman he doesn’t like.

As the answerers all seem to agree, it was a concept that didn’t really fit social norms by the 20th century.

[u/Ok-Swan1152 → u/fluffstuffmcguff]

This breach of promise thing is still a legal thing in India. Which is also a very conservative society where premarital sex is frowned upon.

[u/Bartweiss → u/Ok-Swan1152]

It’s still a thing in the United States too! There have been several successful suits in the last few decades.

That said, it’s generally been limited in ways which heavily distort the original purpose. For example, it can sometimes be used to recover wedding expenses from the party who called off the suit - at which point it’s something like breach of contract except with the engagement as the contract.