Melissa's Discussion Questions

Historiographical-
What kinds of sources were used and did she use them effectively? She discusses women a lot in the book explaining how women were forced to become the head of their households regarding maintenance and cleanliness out of fear for the safety and health of their family. This fear which came from the media and businesses advertising products that would fight germs and keep your houses safe, made women feel responsible for their family's health. However, we don't hear how they felt about this responsibility or their personal reactions to the advertisements.

History-
Tomes discusses how the media created this paranoia of germs within society and that people were not educated enough to know what was a threat or the differences between infectious, communicable, etc. She ends the book in the 1980s saying this fear died down but then was born again in the age of AIDS in the early 80s. Alright, so how are we doing today? Are we still in this era of anxiety reborn in the 80s? Are we still subjects of media induced paranoia of diseases and germs? Are we any more educated on this subject than we were 100 years ago? Or is this fear, which Tomes explains was created in the earlier years of the 20th century, forever ingrained in our psyche?