Abstract
There is a wide range of professions and occupations subjected to mockery in Anglo-American anti-proverbs. A number of Anglo-American proverbs and their variations stress the idea that it is women who possess authority in the domestic sphere This chapter begins with the most traditional female occupation, that of the housewife. It also discusses a number of other typically female professions and occupations most frequently represented in the corpus of anti-proverbs, such as actress and whore. The chapter also addresses the representation of other female professions and occupations, including maids, babysitters, teachers, secretaries, hairdressers, beauticians, landladies, waitresses, and publicity agents.
For the reader’s convenience all anti-proverbs in this book are followed by their original forms, given in {} brackets.Some parts of the study have been published in T. Litovkina, Anna 2011b.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, the amount of time women spend doing housework declined from 27 hours per week in 1965 to less than 16 hours in 1995 (Benokraitis 2007: 367).
- 2.
Seinfeld is an American television situation comedy or sitcom that originally aired on NBC from 1989 to 1998.
- 3.
- 4.
“Margaret Sanger”. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1676.html. [Retrieved July 7, 2015].
- 5.
For West and Zimmerman, when a husband interacts with his wife in a way that displays a traditional configuration of gender roles, it often reinforces the gender attitudes actors learn through early childhood socialization, making it seem natural for men to act masculine and women to act feminine. But when people disrupt gender norms, it can challenge the seeming naturalness of gender inequality and cause a shift in expectations about masculinity and femininity.
- 6.
http://www.jokes-news.com/2006/12/07/frazzled-housewife/ [Retrieved July 7, 2013].
- 7.
http://omgscene.com/Jokes/7533 [Retrieved July 7, 2015].
- 8.
Lana Turner (1921–1995) was an American actress who was married eight times to seven different men (she married and divorced Joseph Stephen Crane twice). She later famously said, “My goal was to have one husband and seven children, but it turned out to be the other way around.” She starred in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Imitation of Life (1959), The Three Musketeers (1948), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), etc. For more on Turner, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lana_Turner [Retrieved October 12, 2012].
- 9.
Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) was an English-American actress who was married eight times to seven men (she married and divorced actor Richard Burton twice). She was named seventh on the Female Legends list of the American Film Institute, and is considered one of the greatest actresses of Hollywood’s golden age. She won two Academy Awards, both for Best Actress, for her roles in BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Among the numerous films she has starred in are: Cleopatra (1963) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). For more on Taylor, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Taylor [Retrieved October 12, 2012].
- 10.
Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917–2016) was a Hungarian-American actress who was married nine times. She was divorced seven times, and one of her marriages was annulled. Among her numerous husbands there have been an actor, a chief executive officer, an oilman, an inventor, a divorce lawyer, a playboy, and even a prince (to whom she has been married since 1986). Due to her high number of divorces, she once claimed that she was a good housekeeper because every time she divorced, she kept the house (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zsa_Zsa_Gabor#cite_note-21) [Retrieved October 12, 2012]. She was also famous for the following quips:
I never hated a man enough to give him diamonds back. (Zsa Zsa Gabor, in Observer 25 Aug. 1957)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/19/zsa-zsa-gabor-her-best-and-most-memorable-quotes
How many husbands have I had? You mean apart from my own?
(http://honeymoons.about.com/od/celebritycouples/tp/CelebHoneymoons.htm) [Retrieved October 12, 2012].
Getting divorced just because you don’t love a man is almost as silly as getting married just because you do (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_marriage.html). [Retrieved October 12, 2012]
Zsa Zsa Gabor’s attitudes towards marriage are summarized in her book titled How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, and How to Get Rid of a Man (1970, Doubleday). For more on Zsa Zsa Gabor,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zsa_Zsa_Gabor#cite_note-21). [Retrieved October 12, 2012].
- 11.
For more, see
http://www.seniorsforliving.com/content/article/top-10-most-divorced-celebrities-/131/ [Retrieved October 12, 2012].
http://honeymoons.about.com/od/celebritycouples/tp/CelebHoneymoons.htm [Retrieved October 12, 2012].
- 12.
http://www.brainyquote.com/words/po/politics204495.html [Retrieved October 12, 2012].
- 13.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/jokes/read/201950/ [Retrieved September 19, 2015].
- 14.
http://thejokes.co.uk/jokes-about-women-drivers.php [Retrieved September 19, 2015].
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Litovkina, A.T. (2019). “Never Send a Boy to Do a Man’s Job–Send a Woman”: Female Professions and Occupations. In: Women Through Anti-Proverbs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91198-4_12
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