Women Through Anti-Proverbs

221 Pages·2018·2.48 MB·English

by  Anna T. Litovkina

W Anna T. Litovkina
T h r o u g h
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A n t i - P r o v e r b s
Women Through Anti-Proverbs
Anna T. Litovkina
Women Through
Anti-Proverbs
Anna T. Litovkina
Department of English Language and Literature
J. Selye University
Komárno, Slovakia
ISBN 978-3-319-91197-7 ISBN 978-3-319-91198-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91198-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018946531
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I would like to dedicate this book to the two most important women in my
life: my mother, Ludmila Petrovna Litovkina, who would have been happy
and proud to see the publication of this book, and my daughter, Veronika
Tóth, for her patience and love.
Foreword
Upon some reflection, it becomes clear that the ubiquitous proverbs and
their traditional wisdom are by no means universal truths. As generaliza-
tions of common observations and experiences, they contain the multi-
faceted aspects of existence and are as contradictory as life itself. A quick
glance at one of the many proverb collections in any language will show
that proverbs are by no means based on a logical philosophical system.
Opposing proverbs such as “Out of sight, out of mind” and “Absence
makes the heart grow fonder” are each true only in specific situations and
perform various functions during verbal or written communication.
While many proverbs are perfectly harmless in their claims, others are by
no means sacrosanct and are in fact ill-conceived stereotypes against vari-
ous groups of people, such as the despicable American proverb “The only
good Indian is a dead Indian” that unfortunately has retained some cur-
rency to this day after springing up during the 1860s. Such hateful pro-
verbial stereotypes exist throughout the world, as can be seen from
Abraham Aaron Roback’s A Dictionary of International Slurs (1944).
Unfortunately, over centuries, men have also created such negative ste-
reotypes about women, as they exercised their dominant role in word and
action. There are collections of anti-feminist proverbs from many cul-
tures and languages, with Mineke Schipper’s Never Marry a Woman with
Big Feet: Women in Proverbs from Around the World (2003) presenting
their global existence and Lois Kerschen’s American Proverbs About
vii
viii Foreword
Women: A Reference Guide (1998) showing their widespread survival in
the Anglo-American world. But while numerous slanderous proverbs
against women remain in circulation, there can be no doubt that the
modern women’s movement has made considerable progress in combat-
ting them by also coining new proverbs that reflect the empowerment of
today’s women.
Considering the many extant collections of anti-feminist proverbs, it
can be stated with conviction that no more compilations are needed. If
someone wanted to assemble yet another list, it would be advisable to add
historical information to such texts that would show when they were
coined and whether they are in fact still in use today. Nobody is served by
the mere enumeration of such proverbs that might just lead to the per-
petuation of the proverbial stereotypes. And this is where Anna
T. Litovkina’s innovative collection and critical study Women Through
Anti-Proverbs (2018) belies the Biblical proverb that “There is nothing
new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). This is indeed a new approach to
an old problem, which deals with the important matter of anti-feminist
sayings from the angle of anti-proverbs. As one would expect, she begins
her book with an analysis of the widespread phenomenon of proverbs
against women, showing the male-dominated creation of this highly
questionable folk wisdom. The second chapter includes the necessary and
informative background to what is understood by the term “anti-p roverb”.
It basically refers to any intentional change of a traditional proverb by
manipulating its wording or by adding something to the proverb that
puts its truth value into question. Such parodied, twisted, fractured, and
transformed texts can come about through the slightest of changes, for
example, making the new proverbial insight “No body is perfect” out of
the traditional proverb “Nobody is perfect.” Many anti-proverbs are for-
mulated by only replacing one word, as in reformulating the proverb
“Home is where the heart is” to “Home is where the computer is.” Of
special prevalence are humorous or satirical additions to well-known
proverbs such as “A man’s home is his castle—let him clean it”, obviously
a liberating anti-proverb expressed by a woman! It is the juxtaposition of
the traditional proverb with the new anti-proverb that makes the latter
such a revealing commentary on the human condition. Not surprisingly,
anti-proverbs can be found in literary works and the mass media, in
Foreword ix
advertising and graffiti, and nowadays also in large numbers on the
Internet. It would, however, be wrong to assume that anti-proverbs are a
modern phenomenon. The punning play or serious alternation of prov-
erbs can be found since the earliest times, showing that frequently cited
proverbs tend to be questioned for various reasons—at times simply
because people are sick and tired of such preformulated language with its
limited claim to truth. And so, it is fair to state that anti-proverbs have
become ever more popular in the modern age.
In a still male-dominated world it should not be surprising that anti-
proverbs about old and young women in general and girls, daughters,
brides, spinsters, wives, widows, mothers, mother-in-laws, and grand-
mothers are unfortunately rampant. The proverbial titles of the many
sections of the twelve chapters into which Anna T. Litovkina has divided
the rich material of this book tell the whole story in a nutshell through
anti-proverbs, as for example “A woman never puts off till tomorrow
what she can say today,” “Where there’s a woman, there’s a way—and she
usually gets it,” “If at first you don’t succeed with a girl, try a little ardor,”
etc. But there is some push-back from women too! Anti-proverbs like “A
woman’s work is never done, especially the part she asks her husband to
do,” “A man’s home is his wife’s castle,” and most likely also “When the
husband is away, the wife will play” show that modern women can stand
their ground proverbially. The last example enters the sexual sphere, and
this aspect is presented in considerable details with a touch of Freudian
psychology in the chapter “‘The breasts on the other side of the fence
look greener’: Women’s sexuality as revealed through Anglo-American
anti-proverbs.” While some of the more obscene texts indicate male
inventions, others like “A pill a day keeps the stork away” or “Love thy
neighbor—but don’t get caught” do not show any gender orientation.
But there is no doubt that most sexual texts are male creations, and this
is also true for the last chapter of the book that deals with women not
being accepted in the workforce, to wit “A woman’s work is never done—
by men” and “A woman’s place is in the home. That’s why she’s so eager
to find a man to put her in her place.”
In many ways, this book is an upsetting mirror revealing the still-
pervasive social attitudes and values in a world dominated by men at the
expense of women. As the extensive bibliography shows, the texts were
x Foreword
chosen from a multitude of sources with Anna T. Litovkina adding an
informed analysis of how not only traditional proverbs but also anti-
proverbs maintain gender differences and stereotypical views of women.
Keeping this in mind, the question quite naturally arises of whether the
modern age is producing fairer proverbs about women. One would cer-
tainly hope so, but what does a glance into The Dictionary of Modern
Proverbs (2012) edited by Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, and
Fred R. Shapiro reveal? This unique dictionary registers only proverbs
that cannot be found in print prior to the year 1900. It lists thirteen
modern proverbs containing the keyword “woman/women” with contex-
tualized historical references. Regrettably, nine of them continue the
negative stereotypes of women, with one of them being an anti-proverb
that has turned into a proverb. They are disrespectful in their degradation
of women:
Always take a woman past forty. She won’t tell, won’t swell, is grateful as
hell. (1953)
A good woman is hard to find. (1942; anti-proverb to “A good man is
hard to find”)
Inside every fat woman there’s a thin woman trying to get out. (1939)
Inside every old woman, there is a young woman. (1973)
Never run after a woman or streetcar. If you miss one, another will come
along. (1910, also included in this book)
Well-behaved women rarely make history. (1976)
Women and elephants never forget. (1904)
A woman should be kept barefoot and pregnant. (1947)
A woman’s word is never done. (1905, also included in this book)
Fortunately, there are the following four proverbs that indicate that
women are breaking through the glass ceiling:
If you want something done, ask a busy woman. (1905)
A woman’s place is any place she wants to be. (1918)
A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. (1976, also
included in this book)
A woman without a man is like a fish without a net. (1993)
Foreword xi
It is comforting to know that at the beginning of the twentieth century
someone came up with the fair and square insight that “If you want
something done, ask a busy woman”, which is also now found with “per-
son” instead of the specific female designation. The well-known proverb
“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” has been ascribed
to the American feminist Gloria Steinem, but it has now been established
that the Australian journalist and politician Irina Dunn coined it in 1970,
although the earliest printed reference is only from 1976. This proverb
caught on and is popular in numerous languages now. It obviously was
the basis for the much younger proverb “A woman without a man is like
a fish without a net” that does not only express the view that a man can
be absurdly irrelevant to a woman but can even become an actual hin-
drance to her self-sufficient life. Finally, then, there is the less aggressive
but exquisitely worded proverb “A woman’s place is any place she wants
to be.” It clearly started as a fitting anti-proverb of the American proverb
“A woman’s place is in the home” from the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury for which Anna T. Litovkina lists the sexual and consumeristic anti-
proverbs “A woman’s place is in the hay,” “A woman’s place is sitting on
my face,” and “A woman’s place is in the mall.” But since anti-proverbs
relate to all social aspects including politics, she also cites “A woman’s
place is in the House—and the Senate” and the ultimate “A woman’s
place is in the White House,” a desideratum that recently was almost
accomplished.
Proverbially speaking, Anna T. Litovkina has broken the mold, has
crashed through the glass ceiling, and has thought outside the box of
traditional proverb collections of women with her collection and study
of anti-proverbs about women. As such, it is an important book about
stereotypical views of women couched in proverbial language. By placing
these anti-feminist viewpoints into the structures of traditional proverbs
with their authoritative voice; ill-willed, dominating, and disrespectful
men have added their part to the painful treatment of women. It is true
that some of these anti-proverbs are meant to be humorous, ironical, or
satirical, but they too keep negative stereotypes alive. The many textual
examples in this book expose this fact, making it, by way of its critical
comments, somewhat of an anti-proverb book. Fortunately, there are
some anti-proverbs with truly humorous puns that do no harm to