Some Advice
Yesterday I ran across two great posts that I wanted to share; first, Rachel’s, which details some advice from magazines of the 1950s. (One magazine from the 70s that I sometimes bring into my classes has an article about how to raise your son to be a “real man” and contains the line, “Do you think our son might be… you know… queer?!?” I think the advice is, don’t be a distant father and don’t let him play with dolls.)
Anyway, it’s always simultaneously funny and infuriating to read the advice in those magazines (as Rachel says, it’s not all that different from advice we see in magazines now). To wit:
In his Husband and Wife Diet Cookbook (1955), Dr. P.W. Punnett suggests one way for women to shed pounds is to simply stop “constantly nibbling candy and nuts and cake and cookies between meals and in addition to their regular meals.” Whereas, he continued, a woman most often gains weight simply because she eats “twice as much as she really needs” – primarily, “foods like pie, cake, ice cream, candy, nuts, mayonnaise, and sweet desserts” – overweight husbands ought not to “be ashamed if the pounds have sneaked up on you.” He attributed men’s weight gain to extra-fatty meats, gravies, alcohol and inactivity due to work-related advancements.
The second is a post from Evany, who has the knack of saying little wise things that stick with you for years. I loved the whole list, but I thought you might like number four…
4. Gaining weight is just as much of a golden opportunity to go outfit shopping as losing weight is.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Feel Good Friday, Feminism, Humor, Magazines, Meta, Old Timey
Woohoo! I share Evany’s sentiment. I shall have to check it out.
Hey, I eat gravy and bacon. Does this mean I’m really a dude?
Evany is so very, very right. I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
I like “Never get a haircut when you’re feeling blue”. (Although I never get haircuts at all, so going by that you’d think I was permanently melancholic. Rather than indecisive and stingy.)
I’m actually wondering if there might not be a grain of truth in the “work-related inactivity” theory, except that obviously it no longer refers to men alone. I read a while back that on average we consume fewer calories than we did fifty years ago, but we move around much less…
When I’ve had a stressful day at work, I certainly don’t want to go out and exercise, even though that might be a really good way to de-stress.
My grandmother IS a hopeless snacker – if there are snacks she will eat them all within a few hours. And my grandfather is a meat&potatoes guy who advanced very far in business. I think if I was stuck at home all day with kids I’d probably be a hopeless snacker too.
Oddly neither of them are fat. Hmm..
God, I’m so far behind on this, but BWAHAHA!! I love the fatty meats thing!! And Evany’s quote is priceless!! I’m disinclined to lose weight because I would be stuck in between “normal” and “plus” size, which makes clothes shopping a real pain in the ass. I’d rather stay fat so that I can continue shopping in the fat girl section.