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Barefoot and pregnant

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File:Barefoot and pregnant.jpg
The phrase is commonly lengthened to "Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen"...

"Barefoot and pregnant" is a phrase most commonly associated with the controversial idea that women should not work outside the home and should have many children during their reproductive years. It has several other meanings as well. The expression's exact origins are rather murky, but it dates back at least to the early 1970s.

Connotations

Positive connotations

The phrase's use in marketing and popular culture suggests that it is not universally regarded in a negative way. This may be because many people associate being barefoot with comfort and relaxation. For instance, Barefoot and Pregnant is a popular spa for pregnant women in Mill Valley, California. One custom portraiture business advertises "Barefoot and pregnant maternity photos".

Melanie Doane, a Nova Scotia pop artist and mother of two, wrote a song called Happy Homemaker that describes the joy of being a stay-at-home wife:

"Why have I been pushing so hard
when I could be out in the backyard
Letting down my hair
letting down my guard
I'm a Happy Homemaker
Barefoot and pregnant
never looked so good
We're all dying to take our shoes off."
—(mp3lyrics.org)

The last line of the song is probably a reference to the problems many women experience with footwear during pregnancy, typically due to foot swelling or difficulties reaching their shoelaces. One blogger noted that in the later months of her pregnancy, she could no longer reach to tie her shoes, commenting "I guess that's why it's barefoot and pregnant!" According to Pregnancy and Your Feet, "Two of the most common foot problems experienced by pregnant woman are over-pronation and edema," or swelling.

In week 34 of her pregnancy, Gaye Ward reported:

"Even my biggest shoes don't fit anymore, and I literally have to be barefoot most of the time."
—(storknet.com)

Similar sentiments were noted by Brandie, who wrote:

"I usually wear a size 6 and now I have to have a size 7 or nothing. That is where the whole barefoot and pregnant adage comes into play."
—(mattandbrandie.com)

Several other bloggers have independently come to similar conclusions about the expression "barefoot and pregnant." Missy Digg's blog notes:

Pregnancy has really given me new perspective on the phrase "barefoot and pregnant." I had always envisioned some poor downtrodden woman who had somehow been deprived of shoes. Now I see her differently. She seems more lush and powerful, and she is only barefoot because wearing shoes when you're pregnant can be darned uncomfortable. Your feet swell and sweat, and they widen as your joints and ligaments relax and your weight increases.
—(missydiggs.org)

Mrs. Crumley's blog makes a similar observation:

The phrase "barefoot and pregnant" has taken on a totally different meaning to me. It used to be a deragatory phrase. It meant (to me) that women should be only in the home, making babies and why would they need shoes because they had no reason to go anywhere. Now "barefoot and pregnant" means a state of finding comfort during an otherwise uncomfortable time.
—(crumleydotorg.chattablogs.com)

Negative connotations

A common assumption is that the expression relates to housewives not leaving the home, and thus not needing shoes. This explanation may be supported by the common reference to women being "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen." Indeed, in the sex discrimination case of Volovsek v. Wisconsin Dept. of Agric., No. 02-2074 (7th Cir. September 18, 2003), the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that a woman who allegedly overheard her manager using the phrase could take her case to a jury: "A comment like 'keeping them barefoot and pregnant,' if true, is clearly derogatory towards working women. It suggests that the person making the comment does not want women in the workplace"[1].

For these reasons, feminists often cite the phrase in a negative context. Stella Ramsaroop, for instance, writes that "The old adage mandating a good wife to be 'barefoot and pregnant' is even more humiliating. It reduces women to nothing more than a tool used for producing a son to carry on the family name or for working in the field"[2]. The Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women annually awards a Barefoot and Pregnant Award "to persons in the community who have done the most to perpetuate outmoded images of women and who have refused to recognize that women are, in fact, human beings"[3]. Shinine Antony wrote a collection of short stories entitled Barefoot and Pregnant and later said in a 2002 interview, "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)"[4].

Some feminists associate "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen" with the phrase "Kinder, Kirche, Küche" (translated "Children, church, kitchen"), which the Germans used to describe women's role in society.

Various screeds against women passed around among misogynists/male chauvinists, on the Internet and in other ways, support the idea of keeping women "barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen" so they can serve men by cooking, cleaning, and bearing children, while not advancing themselves outside the home.

Other uses

  • Barefoot and Pregnant? is a romance novel by Colleen Faulkner. In keeping with the expression's usual connotations, the book's teaser reads, "Although sweet, sassy and seductive, Elise was too ambitious to be Zane's ideal wife, or was she? And what would it take to get Elise to say yes to a lifetime of domestic bliss?"[5].
  • Jean Ray Laury's quilt, Barefoot and Pregnant, was chosen as one of The 20th Century's 100 Best American Quilts[6].
  • Barefoot and Pregnant is also the title of a series of at least five pornographic movies whose plots center around sex during pregnancy.
  • A Barefoot and Pregnant is a cocktail made of brandy, cherry liqueur, white creme de menthe, and dry vermouth[7]. Most doctors advise against imbibing large quantities of such beverages during pregnancy, due to the possibility of fetal alcohol syndrome.

References

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