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Dec 2, 2019 · The pejorative ‘old maid’ In the late 1690s, the term old maid became common. The expression emphasizes the paradox of being old and yet still virginal and unmarried.
- Amy Froide
Abstract. This chapter traces the emergence of the negative stereotypes of the spinster and the old maid. Examining various genres of literature from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, it focuses on three phases in the development of ideas about singlewomen.
Spinster or old maid is a term referring to an unmarried woman who is older than what is perceived as the prime age range during which women usually marry. It can also indicate that a woman is considered unlikely to ever marry. [1] The term originally denoted a woman whose occupation was to spin. [2] The closest equivalent term for males is ...
Dec 2, 2019 · The pejorative ‘old maid’ In the late 1690s, the term old maid became common. The expression emphasizes the paradox of being old and yet still virginal and unmarried. It wasn’t the only term that was tried out; the era’s literature also poked fun at “superannuated virgins.” But because “old maid” trips off the tongue a little ...
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Nov 9, 2023 · In his collection of stories, “The Human Comedy”, the French 19th-century writer Honoré de Balzac turned the shaming of single women into an art.
Nov 10, 2016 · Spinsters have long been associated with cats. This was especially true in the Victorian era when the stereotype of the old maid and her feline dependents was so pervasive that an 1880 edition of the Dundee Courier not only declared that “the old maid would not be typical of her class without the cat,” but that “one cannot exist without the other.”
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4. acing the horror: becoming an “old maid”1The blatant contradiction that exists between the terms “old maid” and “young single woman” is not merely anecdotal data from the flippant lingo of contemporary popular culture, but rather a significan. cue for understanding the tenor of our times. Despite dramatic changes in family ...
