# Your mother wears army boots! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2007, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916 "2007-09-29T09:38:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/1 "2007-09-29T09:38:02Z")
A long time ago that was a cliche’d insult, it would often be heard in Warner cartoons and the like. I do not understand what was so insulting about it. Is there some pop culture reference from seventy years ago that I must know for it to make sense? ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/2 "2007-09-29T09:53:11Z")
I was always told it means she was a prostitute who serviced soldiers. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/3 "2007-09-29T09:54:55Z")
It **is** old, and was an old cliche’. It mostly boils down to “your mother has to work” in a time when women in the work force were uncommon and only worked when they were dirt poor. It comes from the time between WWI and II, and could almost mean “your father is such a pussy that your \*%@! _mom_ is the only one that works!” On preview, well…edit, it had nothing to do with prostitution. It became a cliche after Rosey the Riveter made a women in boots cool. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/4 "2007-09-29T09:58:34Z")
I took it to mean “your mom’s a lesbian”. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/5 "2007-09-29T11:13:05Z")
Same here, I always understood it to mean “your mom’s a big butch lesbo,” since army boots are kind of a butch thing to wear. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/6 "2007-09-29T13:09:00Z")
I always heard that it went waaaaaaaay back to Greco-Roman times, when the ladies who were “camp followers” would take any sort of payment they could get, up to and including the sturdy footwear issued by the army. Credit my high school Latin teacher for that one. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/7 "2007-09-29T13:35:01Z")
I always took it to mean “your mother is more like a top sergeant than a mother” - which in the 40s meant big, loud, rude, crude, and perpetually pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/8 "2007-09-29T15:43:44Z")
I thought it meant you were dirt poor, and your mom wore hand-me-down army boots… ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/9 "2007-09-29T17:22:43Z")
It means she was dirt poor and had to work. She was not the ideal stay at home June Cleaver. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/10 "2007-09-29T17:39:58Z")
[QUOTE=riker1384] I was always told it means she was a prostitute who serviced soldiers. [/QUOTE] Bingo. The version I heard impied it was originally “wears a soldier’s sandals”, & was Roman in origin. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/11 "2007-09-29T17:42:24Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] I always took it to mean “your mother is more like a top sergeant than a mother” - which in the 40s meant big, loud, rude, crude, and perpetually pissed off. [/QUOTE] And that’s different from a mother how, again? ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/12 "2007-09-29T17:42:29Z")
Does anybody have any cites on this? I thought I knew the answer, but maybe I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/13 "2007-09-29T17:54:52Z")
_Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang_ (1998) gives only “a derisive taunt” with no attempt at etymology, alas. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/14 "2007-09-29T18:08:42Z")
In the early days of the Women’s Army Corp, women who signed up were often considered sluts and/or predatory lesbians. My own mother was a WAC, and very proud of her service, but even she told me many of the women were sluts and/or predatory lesbians. She forbade me from ever joining the Army because it was so corrupt and unseemly (I joined anyway - times change.) Thing is though, WACs didn’t often ever wear actual combat boots. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/15 "2007-09-29T18:19:17Z")
You can be sure that the Warner brother cartoons, didn’t use the term meaning mom was a prostitute. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/16 "2007-09-29T19:46:04Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] You can be sure that the Warner brother cartoons, didn’t use the term meaning mom was a prostitute. [/QUOTE] I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Artists have a long history of trying to slip things past censors. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/17 "2007-09-29T20:20:01Z")
I always heard it as “combat” boots, and it wasn’t all _that_ insulting. Not fighting words, anyway. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/18 "2007-09-29T21:43:08Z")
The way I heard it, it’s not only implying your mother’s a prostitute, she’s also so cheap she steals the soldier’s boots. ---
**Author:** ![XaMcQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/f9ae1b/32.png) [@XaMcQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XaMcQ)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/19 "2007-09-29T21:44:09Z")
I never had a clue what it meant as a kid, but later I reasoned that it was saying that you mother was a camp follower and you were a bastard, much like calling someone a ‘son of a gun’, which I’ve read had a similar connotation in the British navy. I don’t believe that it has much meaning at all to the majority of kids who are using it as an insult; they just know it is an insult of some kind, and a certain type of kid will toss it out there because pretending that they know what it means makes them feel cool. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/20 "2007-09-29T22:04:35Z")
[QUOTE=XaMcQ] a ‘son of a gun’, which I’ve read had a similar connotation in the British navy. [/QUOTE] Hey! That’s one I _am_ sure of. The sailors and the marines would socialize on the gundeck when they were in port. Sailors and marines being what they are, there were quite a few children conceived on the gundeck. Hence: “son of a gun”. Learned that one from Gunny on _Mail Call_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916.md?page=2)