Bare-foot and Pregnant
Posted by Masakim on March 03, 2003
In Reply to: Bare-foot and Pregnant posted by S. on March 03, 2003
: Does any one know where the odious phrase "bare-foot and pregnant" originated? Thanks in advance for any information.
keep 'em bare foot and pregnant!
'Semi-proverbial recipe
for marital happiness ... [an example of] masculine callousness towards women
-- now, happily, all but extincty' (Robert Claibone, 1978): since c. 1915.
Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day by Eric Partridge & Paul Beale
BAREFOOT & PREGNANT AWARD
An "award" given by the Media Evaluation Committee
of the National Organization "for advertising degrading to women.
_A Feminist
Dictionary_ by Cheris Kramarae & Paula A. Treichler
Women of the Ozarks
traditionally have been described by a common and unflattering stereotype that
they are ignorant, barefoot, and pregnant. This stereotype has always caused me,
a native Ozarks woman, to become angry with those who endorse this stereotype.
Ozarks women today have many opportunities for receiving quality education past
elementary or secondary school; they have adequate money to buy shoes; and they
usually have small to medium-sized families. Why, then, did this stereotype come
into existence? Although it does not characterize Ozarks women of 1987, this stereotype
did in fact characterize the women of the Ozarks in the past. In the early 1900s
and throughout the mid-to late iBOOs, women in the Ozarks received minimal schooling,
could not afford shoes for their children, and usually had at least eight children.
Ruth
I. Newman, "Ozarks Women: Ignorant, Barefoot, and Pregnant?" at
[Dead link removed - ed]
_Barefoot
And Pregnant_ is a phrase that pokes fun at chauvinists who want their women barefoot
(so that they are unable to socialise) and pregnant (helpless). Supposedly caring
men mouth the phrase in different words. The title was in this context. It was
also meant to provoke.
Review of Shinine Antony's _Barefoot And Pregnant_ in
_The Tribune_, December 22, 2002
- Bare-foot and
Pregnant ESC 03/04/03
- Bare-foot and Pregnant Lewis 03/06/03