The Rise of the Recliner as a Male Social Space

The chair is the defining feature of the American TV dad. A recliner may have helped Sheriff Andy Taylor, Jack Arnold, Carl Winslow, Jim Walsh, Frank Constanza, and Red Forman become more "dad-like." It's Dad's chair, and the established clichés would have you believe that they're physically linked: the chair conforms to his body, and he notices when someone else sits in it. In modern living rooms, the chair is a seat of authority, as life often imitates art. In an otherwise crowded environment, it's a haven of comfort. How did the best recliner chair come to be honored in this way? After all, it has nothing fundamentally masculine—or unique—about it, yet it's promoted as a symbol of manhood.

Don't Let Your Child Take The Seating Options For Granted

We now have chairs in all kinds of places and take seating options for granted, but chairs were formerly considered a luxury—and recliners were much more so—until the nineteenth century. In the seventeenth century, owning a chair denoted power and status. While it was widely recognized that reclining (that is, allowing the body to rest in an inclined position) was a desirable position for comfort, this form of relaxation and comfort was primarily reserved for the wealthy or people who were ill or crippled (which included pregnant women).

The Recliner History

Royals were, for the most part, the first proprietors of reclining chairs. A “stool” that belonged to Queen Elizabeth I, for example, is one of the earliest allusions to reclining furniture. It had a big pillow with gold cloth and silk tassels that was supposed to help the Queen's back. A spring mechanism could be used to change it to numerous settings. In the 1590s, King Philip II of Spain sat in a particular reclining-back easy chair. Its ratchet system allowed it to be adjusted to a variety of settings, and it was the forerunner to many later sorts of recliners. Charles I of England also had a "sleeping chair" with a back that could be adjusted. 

However, the seventeenth century was a watershed moment for chairs. Prior to this time, chairs were only used for sitting. You were seated in chairs. Because the concept of physiological comfort was not widely understood and chairs were not made to aid your comfort, you did not sit in them and let them to encompass you. Chairs with a variety of reclining functions began to appear on the market in the later half of the seventeenth century, indicating a rising interest in comfort—and the time and money to devote to it. During the English Restoration, for example, caned-seat chairs were mass-produced for the middle class.

As a result of these advancements in the seventeenth century, the process of developing chairs and ways of sitting began to take shape. The need for furniture increased as people became wealthier and sedentary lifestyles became more widespread. As a result of this desire, designers began to design for comfort. From a position of formal dignity and uprightness, the chair shifted to a more relaxed stance. People were seeking comfort for the sake of comfort, rather than because they were sick or had a disability that required rest. Chairs would be designed for personal use in the next centuries for fashion, comfort, and health, or some combination of the three, but they would no longer be available as freely to men and woman.

In the eighteenth century, men and women alike sat on couches, chaise lounges, and daybeds until the specialization of rooms began. The dining room, for example, gained popularity as a result of the British royal family's use of a distinct eating location at the time. Similarly, smoking parlors evolved as a separate space in the house where men might retire after dinner to unwind and smoke cigars. The furniture in these rooms was meant to make this a pleasant experience: velvet drapes were draped to absorb the smoke from cigars, and enamel ceilings were recommended so that smoke residue could be readily wiped away.

Become a Role Model

Men and women are socially divided as a result of this notion of space. Men had been able to act as they pleased in public areas due to social standards governing behavior and behavior. Within the house, women had been given power. Women were pushed even deeper within by the construction of male-only social (i.e. public) spaces in the home. This corresponded to women's roles as guardians and executors of morals and etiquette, which were administered and taught behind closed doors.

What this means for recliners and relaxation is that it has become more of a private pastime, at least for women. The chaise lounger or recliner was placed into her boudoir or morning parlor, where she could use it, while he could use the chairs in the home's more public areas.

This concept of accessibility expanded quickly. By the nineteenth century, it was universally understood that hardworking spouses had the right to return home, sit in their own chair, and put their feet up. This concept grew in popularity thanks to a slew of developments that led to the mass production of recliners. The PensiosWeek has a range of chairs with varying degrees of decoration. You could get a basic Mission-style design to something with clawed feet by starting with a single base design of a chair with bars on its seat back where cushions would provide support. Almost every budget and taste could afford a recliner.

Referred: Anthropology in Practice - Scientific American.