I was looking through some magazines from the 1930s and 1940s and saw quite a few ads where the "man of the house" is wearing a coat and tie at the dinner table. Or he's sitting by the radio with his pipe and newspaper - wearing a coat and tie - while his wife invariably is sewing. Just wondering if this was based on reality - or was it just some ideal that didn't really exist?
A brief note... today is Thanksgiving in America. It is a time many people spend with family and not online. This being a question about American socio-cultural history, it is more likely answered by an American historian... and many of them are all busy today. It always takes a little patience for an answer to show up on this subreddit, but today of all days is one we would urge people to be particularly understanding in the time it may take to answer it, or that it may very well remain unanswered as many of the folks best posed to answer it would rather spend time with their family than entertain you all today.
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And finally, as we sometimes do in the interest of transparency, I've gone and tallied up all of the removed, top-level comments:
Updated as of ~11:20am this is how they break down:
13 comments which are not even an attempt to answer the question in the spirit of the rules of the subreddit. These are comments ranging from a single word, to at most a handful of sentences that in no way indicate any actual familiarity with the topic at hand, or the ability to answer the question.
1 removed comment which was, admittedly, a valiant attempt, but nevertheless is only a single paragraph that only speaks in generalities and does nothing to offer the depth we would expect, nor does it particularly suggest that the author can go in more depth, all factors we consider in evaluating whether to approve or remove. It is unfortunate that people are downvoting a moderator for merely enforcing the rules on this comment... if you don't like that, then this subreddit might just not be for you.
4 comments which are specifically just describing how the user's grandfather used to dress, but do not properly contextualize that into the broader trends of the time. We do not allow answers based primarily on personal anecdotes or family stories passed down.
18 comments which are just complaining that there are no comments, now including one which is more specifically directly insulting me for the audacity of pointing out it is a holiday for a significant percentage of the user base, which means 50% of the removed comments are comments about removed comments. This just compounds the problem, y'all.