Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating, by Moira Weigh.
I learned so much from this book! There is so much information packed into it that spans a little over a century of the origins of dating, the way that dating as praxis continues to turn itself over and reinvent itself according to the current social climate (and the economy), and how women (unsurprisingly) continue to get the short end of the stick of reaping these benefits even as we simultaneously gain more economic opportunities and independence. As with everything that begins as a means of accrual (women as property, women as social currency — you know the deal), the threat of dismantlement always sprouts when the thing being accrued finds a doorway to freedom of not having to be accrued anymore. And guess what, girls! We don’t have to be accrued anymore. To freedom!