So here’s a weird thing: Everyone knows what “personality” involves right? Not exactly, and according to Dr. Krishnamurthy Kavirayani of Bharatpur’s College of Medical Sciences, “there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality.” There are plenty of suggestions, though, with many people thinking of personality in terms of a person’s thought patterns, behaviors, feelings, and how they act in relationships. Sigmund Freud is widely credited with developing basic ideas surrounding personality, but until the advent of modern dating, “personality” was mostly a negative thing.
That’s according to dating historian, researcher, and author Moira Weigel. In her book “Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating,” she wrote (via the New York Post) that dating overhauled thinking about personality. Previous conversations focused on “personality disorders,” Weigel wrote. “Starting around 1920, however, experts began to grant that healthy individuals had personalities, too. … Personality was like ‘painting’ — a way a woman could make herself up in order to appeal to men.”
The importance people started to put on personality was perhaps no better illustrated than the concept of the “It Girl.” The highly desired “it” was described in various ways, and it had to do with allure, charisma, and the ability to showcase it. In a 1926 article for Cosmopolitan, Elinor Glyn described it like this: “With ‘It,’ you win all men if you are a woman — and all women if you are a man.”
