Yellow Wallpaper

One of the features of our new apartment is a working garbage disposal. It's been a few years since we've had one, and Mr. Fob and I are suddenly discovering a new source of marital conflict. According to Mr. Fob, movies and television have taught him that you should never stick your hand in the garbage disposal, even if it is turned off. I prefer to rely on common sense and the fact that the off switch means "off" and stick my hand in to make sure no utensils are hiding before turning it on. Mr. Fob thinks I'm crazy. What do you think? Do you stick your hand in the garbage disposal or do you like to grind up your spoons and forks?

Fifty-six people have taken my quiz, and the answers match what I had predicted from the outset. In fact, majority opinion matches all the animals in the book . If I had more time and a good reason to do it, I'd survey a bunch of books to see what kind of gender biases farm animals are subjected to in the name of children's literature. Now let's analyze the results: Pig: Three quarters of the responses were for male, one quarter for female. The book actually has two pigs and uses "they", so this won't match up. Pig is one that can kind of go both ways, but I generally think of pigs as being male. The Three Little Pigs are usually male, and so are Wilbur and Babe, so there's some strong cultural conditioning going on there. Horse: The same split: three quarters were male, one quarter female. In the book, Horse is referred to as "he". As one commenter pointed out, horse and cow are often seen as a pair, and since cows are obviously female (except i...

One of our favorite books lately is Duck on a Bike by David Shannon. In the book, Duck rides his bike past all his friends on the farm and invites them to come for a ride. What I found interesting the first time I read is that so often the gender assigned to each animal seemed to "feel right" to me. When I was discussing this with Mr. Fob, he actually agreed with many of my assessments. Obviously some animal names come with a gender, like rooster or cow, but many other animals seem to be more often portrayed as one way or another. Rather than reveal what my thoughts were, I thought I'd take a little survey and see what you think: Quizzes by Quibblo.com