Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
As another AlwaysFemale character, the Dry Crusader is a JustifiedTrope. Alcoholism was a serious problem in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and usually, it was the wives and children who had to endure the violent bouts of their alcoholic husbands, and the ensuing poverty as many men squandered their salaries on drink. In DirtyLondon during the industrial revolution, cheap gin was destroying the poor classes in body and soul. The Dry Crusader is not limited to the U.S. and can also be found in stories set in Canada, Britain, and other countries that have a history of puritanism and/or campaigns against the consumption of alcohol, such as Scandinavia.
There's also another, darker side to the Dry Crusader, at least in the US. The US was industrializing at the time and factories were going up everywhere to take advantage of the nation's abundant natural resources. As a result, the economic boom was fed by a flood of immigrants, and where you get immigrants, you get a surge in anti-immigrant bigotry (this period also saw the formation of the anti-immigrant Know Nothing political party). Alcohol and alcoholism had always been a problem, but it was viewed as an individual moral problem, rather than a social problem, and much of the rise of the various temperance movements was fed by this rise in bigotry. Thus they wanted to fight the Germans with their beer, the Irish with their whiskey, the Italians with their wine, the Slavs with their vodka, etc. who were "destroying America's moral character with their degenerate habits". People at the time were well aware of this sort of thing, as the well-known slogan "Every Nation But Carrie" made it onto commemorative products sold by or to bars like postcards and miniature hatchets.[[note]]Carrie Nation was a nationally (in)famous temperance activist who attacked saloons with a hatchet. On the flip side, bars and saloons were happy to welcome any customer (outside the South) and came close to being the Melting Pot that the US likes to proclaim itself.[[/note]]
That said, this anti-immigrant bigotry is connected with the rise of the teetotaler movement to greater prominence, power, and radicalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Temperance as a whole goes back well into the 18th century, where it could be connected with health (native American temperance movements), class (the poors and their gin), and, yes, the moral crusade against alcohol as a sinful vice. Hence, works that present a Dry Crusader may intend to present a very different message depending on the time period it was produced in and how they present the crusader. In 1790, they[[note]]Yes, there were male teetotalers, although women were overrepresented because moral crusades were one of the few ways they could participate in politics[[/note]] might be presented as a little prudish, or a stuck up prig, or one of the few upright characters. In the 1890s, they might be presented as prudish, or a prig, or one of the few upright characters, or a white supremacist (which, again, [[ValuesDissonance might be presented as one of the few upright characters]]).
ValuesDissonance also applies, as people with alcohol and drug addictions are seen in a more sympathetic light today, while in the past alcoholism was considered simply a moral failing. These days, addiction is treated more as a medical problem.
There's also another, darker side to the Dry Crusader, at least in the US. The US was industrializing at the time and factories were going up everywhere to take advantage of the nation's abundant natural resources. As a result, the economic boom was fed by a flood of immigrants, and where you get immigrants, you get a surge in anti-immigrant bigotry (this period also saw the formation of the anti-immigrant Know Nothing political party). Alcohol and alcoholism had always been a problem, but it was viewed as an individual moral problem, rather than a social problem, and much of the rise of the various temperance movements was fed by this rise in bigotry. Thus they wanted to fight the Germans with their beer, the Irish with their whiskey, the Italians with their wine, the Slavs with their vodka, etc. who were "destroying America's moral character with their degenerate habits". People at the time were well aware of this sort of thing, as the well-known slogan "Every Nation But Carrie" made it onto commemorative products sold by or to bars like postcards and miniature hatchets.[[note]]Carrie Nation was a nationally (in)famous temperance activist who attacked saloons with a hatchet. On the flip side, bars and saloons were happy to welcome any customer (outside the South) and came close to being the Melting Pot that the US likes to proclaim itself.[[/note]]
That said, this anti-immigrant bigotry is connected with the rise of the teetotaler movement to greater prominence, power, and radicalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Temperance as a whole goes back well into the 18th century, where it could be connected with health (native American temperance movements), class (the poors and their gin), and, yes, the moral crusade against alcohol as a sinful vice. Hence, works that present a Dry Crusader may intend to present a very different message depending on the time period it was produced in and how they present the crusader. In 1790, they[[note]]Yes, there were male teetotalers, although women were overrepresented because moral crusades were one of the few ways they could participate in politics[[/note]] might be presented as a little prudish, or a stuck up prig, or one of the few upright characters. In the 1890s, they might be presented as prudish, or a prig, or one of the few upright characters, or a white supremacist (which, again, [[ValuesDissonance might be presented as one of the few upright characters]]).
ValuesDissonance also applies, as people with alcohol and drug addictions are seen in a more sympathetic light today, while in the past alcoholism was considered simply a moral failing. These days, addiction is treated more as a medical problem.
