Spinster World War prevented many within a generation of women from experiencing romance and marriage, or having children. The image of the old spinster with a fading photo of her dead World War I soldier boyfriend on her fireplace mantel was common in films of the 1950s and 1960s. Likewise, in the American classic novel "Gone with the Wind" (1936) about the Civil War, numerous references are made to grieving fiancées, women who were "wanted, if not wed", and to the shortage of single, able-bodied (and thus "marriageable") men at war's end. In modern peacetime societies with wide opportunities for romance,
Bachelor tax Bachelor tax A bachelor tax is a punitive tax imposed on unmarried men. Such measures historically would be instantiated as part of a moral panic due to the important status given to marriage at various times and places. As far back as Ancient Rome and more recently in the legislatures of New Jersey and Michigan, the supposed libertine or delinquent status of bachelor men was debated and taxes proposed as a solution. Still other locations would find reason to instantiate a bachelor tax for racial reasons (such as in South Africa), nationalistic reasons, to help cover welfare programs, or more