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Close your eyes

Posted by R. Berg on April 07, 2010 at 15:58

In Reply to: Close your eyes posted by Smokey Stover on April 06, 2010 at 01:53:

: : : My grandmother used to say "Just close your eye's and think of England", the context was usually enduring something unpleasant. I have never heard it since - any ideas?

: : You've asked about the more recent version of this phrase, which is still used in the UK at least, although usually ironically these days. Once you know that the original version was 'lie back and think of England', you might guess that this was advice given to wives when enduring unwilling sex with their husbands.

: : Nice use of the grocer's apostrophe, by the way. Good to see it is still alive and kicking.

: : See:

: The excellent article to which your link leads contains this sentence: " Marriage was a route to economic security for women in Edwardian England and many must have seen the granting of sexual favours as an unwelcome price to pay for it."

: And of course that is no longer true. Right?
: SS

Another part of the explanation: wives were advised to think of the *future* of England because they were felt to have a patriotic duty to have babies in order to keep the nation populated. ~rb

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