Wednesday, March 2

"I'm not Superwoman"

Beebo and I were watching The Bachelor last night, and were treated to Brad "Not commitment-phobic now" Womack telling one of the bachelorettes, who was pursuing a dental career, that he didn't 'expect [her] to be Superwoman'.  We were delighted, because "I'm not Superwoman" is one of our favorite clichéd phrases.

In case you're not familiar with it, it's what you're supposed to say if you're a woman juggling a career while taking care of your kids, preparing all the meals, and cleaning the house and keeping your marriage alive.  Preferably, if you say this, it's the early eighties, since it sounds extremely dated.  It's apparently still au courant, though, since I found 162,000 instances of it by doing a Google search.

The earliest reference to 'Superwoman' seems to be from 1976, but most references to it probably stem from the 1984 book, The Superwoman Syndrome.
I'm sure the "men's responses' from 1982 are especially cringe-worthy...

Just to help you keep things straight, here's what Superwoman looks like
(in clip art form):
Has the most important job in the world--motherhood

But don't confuse her with Supergirl:
Has the most important job in the world, if Superman is felled by green Kryptonite

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