# Was the word 'pregnancy' used in polite conversation before I LOVE LUCY? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2010, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238 "2010-03-04T03:26:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/21 "2010-03-05T02:37:51Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Rape was called “assault.” [/quote] In _Anatomy of a Murder_ they called it rape throughout. No idea if that was one of the first mainstream movies to do so. [QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] In Gone with th Wind, Scarlett gets all embarassed when Rhett says “pregnant” [/QUOTE] Good call. I went to the [online version](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200161.txt)(GWTW is out of copyright protection in Australia so it’s on their Gutenberg site) and Mitchell used the word pregnant many times in the book- for Scarlett, for Melanie, for Maybelle Merriwether, and for anyone else who got pregnant during the course of the novel. It also mentioned the unsightliness or unseemliness of pregnancy during Scarlett’s pregnancy with her daughter Ella: > [@](#): > > By [June] Scarlett knew she would be forced to retire into Aunt Pitty’s house and remain secluded there until after her child was born. Already people were criticizing her for appearing in public when she was in such a condition. No lady ever showed herself when she was pregnant. Already Frank and Pitty were begging her not to expose herself–and them–to embarrassment and she had promised them to stop work in June. Of course being a book it had greater liberties. For all the furor that the movie made with using the word _damn_ it may surprise those who haven’t read it to know that Rhett and Gerald use “God damn” and its variants throughout it and there are several references to rape and even abortion. > [@md2000](#): > > Even in the 60’s, My Three Sons, the only clue mentioned that a woman was ‘spectin’ (and she didn’t even know hereself, duh!) was that she fainted several times. I remember that episode- it was the Number 2 son Robbie’s wife, and she was pregnant with triplets it turned out. I remember wondering if fainting is normal for some pregnant women or if they just thought morning sickness was too icky. Or it’s possible that when the show went into syndication they cut the line where Uncle Charlie says “Tell me Katie, when was the last time you was on the rag?” ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/22 "2010-03-05T03:26:31Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > What was the story about Groucho on TV and his guest, the lady with 10 kids? > > GROUCH: “10 kids???” > LADY: “I love my husband very much.” > GROUCH: “I love my cigar too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while.” I first read that in one of Cecil’s columns in the early eighties, but I later read somewhere that it never actually happened. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/23 "2010-03-05T04:40:20Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > For all the furor that the movie made with using the word _damn_ The only “furor” was in the Production Code Office, until it revised the Production Code a month before the release of GWTW to accommodate the use of “damn” in certain contexts. No one — and I mean no one — else cared. “Damn” was common in popular novels and magazines of the 1930s. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/24 "2010-03-05T04:50:25Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > The only “furor” was in the Production Code Office, until it revised the Production Code a month before the release of GWTW to accommodate the use of “damn” in certain contexts. No one — and I mean no one — else cared. “Damn” was common in popular novels and magazines of the 1930s. I wonder if the notion it was could have been a David O. “Master of Publicity” Selznick device. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/25 "2010-03-05T13:00:52Z")
The word “pregnant” (and all its derivatives) may have been avoided, but “abortion”, wow! From **Reality Chuck** ’s link: > [@Motion Picture Production Code from the 50's](#): > > The subject of abortion shall be discouraged, shall never be more than suggested, and when referred to shall be condemned. If nothing else, this helps understand why [Maude’s abortion](http://www.tvacres.com/broad_abortion.htm) discussion/decision caused such a brouhaha when it aired (1972). ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/26 "2010-03-05T13:01:53Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Rape was called “assault.” In one early episode of “Hawaii Five-O,” a woman is said to have been “criminally assaulted” instead of “raped.” ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/27 "2010-03-05T15:59:28Z")
My grandma, to this day, will not say pregnant. I recently got married and she said, “Be sure to tell me when you’re in a family way!” I have never heard her say pregnant, and at this point, I doubt she ever will. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/28 "2010-03-05T18:21:31Z")
The old people when I was a kid said ‘family way’ or, sometimes, ‘about to be blessed’ (used in a context where you understood it- ‘they’re about to be blessed again’- not just ‘she got about to be blessed after her prom’). A period was ‘her time’ or ‘her days’ ("She wasn’t about to be blessed, she was just having her days so she was bloated’). What was strange to me though was that the old women rarely referred to any woman’s husband but instead to “her man”. What I thought was ironic was that ‘man’ sounded more sordid than either pregnant or period/etc., which just sound clinical. ‘Her man’ sounds like they were shacking up or just very casual. “Her man is Mr. Otis’s boy and he got her blessed before the wedding and then 12 more times by the time she was 35.” I’ve actually wondered if this may somehow have been a holdover from their German ancestors (“mann” meaning ‘man’ or ‘husband’ depending on context in German). ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/29 "2010-03-05T20:13:14Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > What was strange to me though was that the old women rarely referred to any woman’s husband but instead to “her man”. What I thought was ironic was that ‘man’ sounded more sordid than either pregnant or period/etc., which just sound clinical. ‘Her man’ sounds like they were shacking up or just very casual. Which worked perfectly in “The Hustler”. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/30 "2010-03-05T23:23:20Z")
There are numerous examples of things on TV in 2010 that would never been allowed past the censors of 50’s and 60’s. What’s really interesting is material that was shown from that time period that would be somewhat controversial today. Would it be politically correct (in 2010) for an astronaut to lock his girlfriend in small enclosure (bottle) and the girlfriend call him “Master”. How about this racially insensitive joke I saw on a old Hollywood Squares episode. Peter Marshall asks George Gobel: > [@](#): > > PM: Is it possible to cross a pumpkin with a watermelon? > > GG: Yes, but what you get is a jack-o-lantern with an Afro ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/31 "2010-03-05T23:49:08Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > What’s really interesting is material that was shown from that time period that would be somewhat controversial today. > > Would it be politically correct (in 2010) for an astronaut to lock his girlfriend in small enclosure (bottle) and the girlfriend call him “Master”. > > How about this racially insensitive joke I saw on a old Hollywood Squares episode. > > Peter Marshall asks George Gobel: Half the humor on _All in the Family_ wouldn’t fly today. > [@](#): > > Assorted Archie-isms: > > “England is a fag country.” > > “I never said a guy who wears glasses is a queer. A guy who wears glasses is a four-eyes; a guy who’s a fag is a queer.” > > ``` > Archie Bunker: So youse tellin' me Frank does all the cookin'? > Irene Lorenzo: Yeah, so? > Archie Bunker: So, aren't ya worried 'bout what people might think? > Irene Lorenzo: What, that I'm a bad cook? > Archie Bunker: No, that yer husband's a fag! > > ``` > > (studying a sample voting ballot sent to his home): “O’Grady, Goldberg, Giovanni, Johnson?.. You got a Mick, a Hebe, a Wop, and an ordinary American!.. That’s what I’d call a balanced ticket!” Sticking mostly to gays since nobody can say I’m being insensitive there, but I found nothing wrong with these. He’s playing an ignorant and bigoted but ultimately sympathetic and multilayered character and it was ultimately more of an indictment than if the character had just been a villain. People who aren’t KKK aren’t going to recognize themselves in a Klan character and those who are KKK aren’t embarrassed by it, but people would see themselves in Archie even if they wouldn’t always admit it, and they also sympathized with “Little Glory there” as a woman who didn’t share her father’s views but loved him anyway. Make a sympathetic character on a show today utter one of those comments and there’d be outrage. Pierce on _Community_ is about as close as it comes, and he’s such a clown and not the lead it’s way lesser. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/32 "2010-03-08T14:56:59Z")
Pregnancy was also called “confinement” as if the woman was in a prison. In a sense I guess she was. People magazine ran a photo of Princess Diana in a bathing suit at five months entitled TJE PREGNANT PRINCESS. They got complaints about using “that word.” And this was in the 1970’s. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/33 "2010-03-08T15:12:54Z")
> [@](#): > > People magazine ran a photo of Princess Diana in a bathing suit at five months entitled TJE PREGNANT PRINCESS. They got complaints about using “that word.” And this was in the 1970’s. “pregnant” was definitely used on TV by the late 1960s and early 1970s. They used it in “All in the Family”. I also remember an exchange from _That Girl_ Ted Bissel (Donald): It’s a future pregnant with possibilities! Marlo Thomas (Ann Marie): Just don’t put it that way when you talk to my father. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/34 "2010-03-08T18:10:40Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > I first read that [Groucho and the cigar wisecrack] in one of Cecil’s columns in the early eighties, but I later read somewhere that it never actually happened. Seems not: [The Secret Words | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/grouchocigar.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/35 "2010-03-08T18:19:24Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Seems not: [The Secret Words | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/grouchocigar.asp) Per that link the closest was when a woman from a family of 17 children responded “Well, my daddy loves children” he said “I love pancakes but I don’t want closets full of 'em”. It would be ironic if it was discovered it was Groucho who said “That would be ‘in the butt’ Bob.” ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/36 "2010-03-08T19:53:19Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > …Would it be politically correct (in 2010) for an astronaut to lock his girlfriend in small enclosure (bottle) and the girlfriend call him “Master”… Well, for most of the show she was his _slave_, not his girlfriend. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238/37 "2010-03-08T20:23:43Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Well, for most of the show she was his _slave_, not his girlfriend. 😛 One of my favorite Beavis and Butthead moments was when they were channel surfing and came across _I Dream of Jeannie_. Beavis: Ooh, hey, I love this show… it’s about this belly dancer who lives with this cop! Butthead: Yeah… heh heh… she calls him _master_… Both: Heh heh heh heh heh heh master… Since it’s tangentially related to pregnancy I’ll mention that my favorite Beavis and Butthead pop-culture reference was about the birthing scene in CITY SLICKERS. “This reminds me of that movie where Billy Crystal goes out west and he reaches his hand up that cow’s ass and pulls out a dog!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-word-pregnancy-used-in-polite-conversation-before-i-love-lucy/531238.md?page=1)