"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Baker, John]

        That's excellent context, Garson.  It's this kind of background
that gives the study of origins real meaning.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Garson O'Toole
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 4:01 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle"
(UNCLASSIFIED)

Thanks to Bill Mullins and Vic Steinbok for sharing their findings.
When investigating the origin of this phrase earlier this year I
encountered some other resonant examples containing the word "fish".
The expression "fish without a bicycle" may have been constructed as a
transformative parody with a gender role reversal from the phrase
"fish without a tail". The latter expression has been applied to
gender roles since 1859 or earlier. Here are two examples.

In 1859 a magazine article asks in its title "What is a Bachelor?" The
answer is given in verses that include the following: "a fish without
a tail, a ship without a sail; a legless pair of tongs, a fork without
its prongs." Here is a longer excerpt:

Cite: 1859 February, Hutchings' California Magazine, Our Social Chair,
What is a Bachelor, Page 379, Volume 3, Number 8. Hutchings &
Rosenfield, San Francisco, California. (Google Books full view)

         WHAT IS A BACHELOR?

>From the pen of Launcelot Goosenberry, esq., Poet Laureate, and
dedicated to all Poets and Poetesses around these diggings.

Why, a pump without a handle, a mouldy tallow candle, a goose that's
lost its fellows, a noseless pair of bellows, a horse without a
saddle, a boat without a paddle! a mule--a fool--a two-legged stool! a
pest--a jest! dreary--weary--contrary--uncheery; a fish without a
tail, a ship without a sail; a legless pair of tongs, a fork without
its prongs; a clock without a face, a cat that's out of place; ...

http://books.google.com/books?id=dVAdAQAAIAAJ&q=uncheery#v=snippet&

Hence the formula: a male without a female is like a fish without a
tail, i.e., a fish without an essential part of itself. This motif did
not disappear. Here is an example at a student rally in Wisconsin in
1967 as reported in a newspaper in Chicago, Illinois.

Cite: 1967 July 30, Chicago Tribune, "How to Govern the Great State of
Wisconsin--A Roadshow Starring Warren P. Knowles" by Ridgely Hunt,
Page I22, Chicago, Illinois. (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)

Knowles finally reached the lectern at 9:17 p.m. to begin his last
speech of the day. It was too late and too hot, and the boys were too
restless, for a serious address on the responsibilities of government,
so the governor gave them a few inspiring platitudes, which they
accepted amiably, and read them a song that had been sent to them from
Girls' State in Madison that afternoon.

  "A man without a Girls' State," he read,
  "Is like a ship without a sail,
  "Is like a boat without a rudder
  "Is like a fish without a tail ...
  "But if there's one thing worse in this universe,
  "It's a Girls' State, I said a Girls' State,
  "It's a Girls' State without a male."

This song was constructed by the women at Girls' State, and it
suggests that both males and females require one another.

By the 1970s there is a new parodic formulation: a female without a
male is like a fish without a bicycle. The gender roles are reversed
and the fish is matched with an inessential part, an absurd
encumbrance.

Garson

On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 12:39 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "A woman without a man is like a fish without a
bicycle"
>              (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
>
>  Not antedating, but relevant. Fred Shapiro's citation from People
> gives Gloria Steinem's T-shirt as the source (with Steinem attributing
> the line further to Irina Dunn). NY Mag from
> Aug. 9, 1976, (about two weeks later) attributes the quote directly to
> Steinem. (Full issue available in GB.)
>
...


> On 9/2/2010 11:07 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>> Fred Shapiro's Freakonomics column in the NYT of 12 Aug 2010 has the
>> subject quote from _People_ magazine, 26 July 1976 as quoted in the
YBQ.
>>
>> Slightly earlier:
>>
>> _Seattle Times_ 5 Jun 1976 p A7 col 2
>> "Sign seen in a (feminist?) dress shop in Seattle, Wash.:  "A woman
>> without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." "
>
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