Quotes / Stay in the Kitchen

Anime and Manga

"Undue concern for women leads to contempt for them."

— Prime Minister Kayabuki, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig

"Just because you're wearing armor doesn't mean you belong in a battlefield! Taking your head brings me only shame! Be gone! War is a man's work!"

— Shimazu Toyohisa to Joan of Arc, Drifters

Comic Books

Olive: Why are there no women running for president?
Popeye: Because they're too busy runnin' fer huskbands!

— Popeye, "Olive Oyl for President"

Fan Works

Cyclops: Jeannie, this could be dangerous!
Jean Grey: And Magneto wasn't? Or Sauron, or Quasimodo, or the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, or any of those others?"

— X-Men 1970

Joe wouldn't have it. Sure, he'd taught Carol to fight. He'd taught all his kids to fight. That didn't mean she wasn't supposed to be a lady, and a lady's place was in the home, not acting like some harlot on a movie screen or in Vogue or being some spinster career girl. She was going to get married, and that was that. No sense in spending tuition money when she could have her pick of men right there in Boston. But, he said, she could go to secretarial school, or learn to be a nurse. Those were useful things.

So she went and joined the Air Force.

— A Prize for Three Empires

Bulletman: In case you've forgotten, Susan, you're a wife and mother now. My wife, Jimmy's mother. We stopped wearing the helmets and costumes six years ago. I won't have you gallivanting around—
Bulletgirl: "You won't? Mr. Jim Barr, in case you've forgotten, I agreed to be your wife, not your bondservant.

— Here There Be Monsters

"Those Princess Knights? They should be doing what a man should be telling them, not the other way around. They'll cook, clean, and fuck whenever we tell them to."

— Vault, The Night Unfurls

Film

"You women should stay at home where you belong!"

—Red Volkswagen Owner, The New York Ripper

Literature

These blithering women who thought they could do a man's work. Why the hell couldn't they stay at home and mind their pots and pans and stick to their frocks and gossip and leave men's work to the men.

— Ian Fleming, Casino Royale

Live-Action TV

"Oh, actually yeah, I did do something special. I got turned into a stone statue, and everyone had to come and save me. Awesome."

— Madison, Power Rangers Mystic Force ("The Light")

"Every time you go out, you get arrested or stabbed or betrothed. You should stay at home and do your embroidery!"

— Robin to Marian, Robin Hood

"You know, you’d make a great nurse."

—Cap. Archer to Subcommander (First Officer) T'Pol, Star Trek: Enterprise ("Twilight")

Margaret Schroeder: I come from a country where women already have the right to vote. In fact, in most civilized countries women are afforded that privilege.
Senator Edge: Well, in this country we're simply trying to protect women from the hard truths of life.
Margaret Schroeder: By denying them the right to take a meaningful part in it?

—Boardwalk Empire

"Women can't lead! Women can't win! They will always be outsmarted and outmuscled! They need to finally understand that what they can and should do is shut up, know their place and make me a goddamn sandwich!"

—Kai Anderson, American Horror Story

Music

When I went to school, I learned to write and how to read,
History, geography and home economy,
And typing is a skill that every girl is sure to need,
To while away the extra time until the time to breed,
And then they had the nerve to ask, "What would you like to be?"
I said, "I'm gonna be an engineer!

No, you only need to learn to be a lady,
The duty isn't yours, for to try and run the world,
An engineer could never have a baby,
Remember, dear, that you're a girl.

— Peggy Seeger, Gonna Be An Engineer

The first time it was fathers, the last time it was sons
And in between, your husbands marched away with drums and guns
But you never stopped to question, you just went on with your lives
'Cos all they taught you who to be was mothers, daughters, wives
And you believed them

— Judy Small, Mothers, Daughters, Wives

We make her paint her face and dance
If she won't be slave, we say that she don't love us
If she's real, we say she's trying to be a man
While putting her down we pretend that she is above us

—John Lennon, "Woman is the Nigger of the World"

Who must find a way to keep a proper home
A quiet home, a kosher home?
Who must raise the family and run that home
So Papa's free to read the holy books

— The Mama^note The Mama!, Tradition, Fiddler on the Roof

There's a guy that lives in the Garden State
And he told me that we'd make it 'til we graduate
So I told him that the music will be worth the wait
But he wants me in the kitchen with a dinner plate

—Halsey, "Bad At Love"

Film — Live-Action

Trinity: I'm going with you.
Neo: No, you're not.
Trinity: No? Let me tell you what I believe. I believe that Morpheus means more to me than he does to you. I believe if you are really serious about rescuing him, you are going to need my help. And since I am the ranking officer on this ship, if you don't like it, I believe you can go to hell.

— The Matrix

Hammond: But you know, I should really be the one going.
Dr. Sattler: Why?
Hammond: Well, because you're a... and I'm a...
Dr. Sattler: Look, we can discuss "sexism in survival situations" when I get back.

— Jurassic Park

Video Games

"Just a girl. Get out of here!"

—Ryu Hayabusa on meeting Irene Lew, Ninja Gaiden

Lana: Sir, I'm not staying behind!
Seliph: I'm not going to let you get yourself killed out there. Nuns and warfare DO NOT MIX!!

— Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

Flame Legion Recruiter: Why fight for Blood when you can cook for Flame Legion? Females have it easy with us.
Elexus Shredskin: You want me to desert and join you so you can demote me to fry cook?

— Guild Wars 2, part of the personal story for Blood Legion charr characters.

"This places is not for a woman! Go back home, take off your shoes, and stay in the kitchen!"

— Franco Bash to Mai Shiranui, Fatal Fury 3

Web Original

Ben Steed is doing his usual bit for female emancipation by ensuring that the fair sex are treated as little more than slaves and tossing lines like don’t just stand there woman, bring ale!

—Joe Ford on Blake's 7, "Power"

Eventually, you meet a ninja and his rad hound, and then you meet someone named Celes. The game talks her up like she's going to be a major player, but in general she's just some opera floozy who jumps off a cliff because she's too stupid to feed an old man food that isn't poisonous.

—Chris Rasa on Final Fantasy VI (April Fools' article)

It’s not good for relationships to tell men what to do? Who the fuck taught her about relationships, Tony Soprano? Or maybe this is just another creative way to sell copies of ARTPOP. 'Gaga, we’re thinking it might be a good idea to reach out to some previously ignored markets. What do you think about the submissive wives of Utah?

—Michael K., "Lady Gaga Keeps Finding New Ways To Be Obnoxiously Frustrating"

An industrious young woman neglects to charge for her housekeeping services and is rightly exploited for her naïveté. She dies without ever having sought her own happiness as the highest moral aim. I did not finish watching this movie, finding it impossible to sympathize with the main character. —No stars.

—Daniel Mallory Ortberg, theorizing what Ayn Rand would say about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

There is not a male wrestler on the WCW roster who couldn't have beaten Colonel Parker by whipping their dick out and flapping it in his general direction, and yet here he effortlessly tosses Madusa around like a rag doll because HE IS MAN AND MAN IS MIGHTY.

—Cewsh Reviews on WCW Uncensored '96

When you talk to a guy, he wants you to get on a gatling gun and kill buffalo rapists. When you talk to a girl, she wants you to play a rhythm action game to feed her pigs. A woman's idea of a mission is a scenic wagon ride or driving her fussy cattle out to pasture, and she will be nagging at you the whole goddamn time.

— Seanbaby, "6 Things Red Dead Redemption Taught Me About (Hating) Women"

HAHA THE LADIES THEY KEEP SCREWING UP THE JOB THEIR GENDER ASSIGNED TO THEM AMIRGHT FELLAS BUT WHAT’RE YA GONNA DO IT’S NOT LIKE YOU’RE GOING TO COOK OR ANYTHING

The Comics Curmudgeon on Dennis the Menace (US)

...Tom Wilkinson is stuck in a more thankless role as the railroad tycoon whose turn towards evil is obvious from the moment he's introduced leering at [Ruth] Wilson, who becomes just another damsel in distress. In fact, when it looks like she's about to actually accomplish something during the climax, Tonto unwittingly knocks her out with a rock. I feel like there's a scene that captures every wrong-headed approach this film takes, and there's another one.

—Brett Gallman on The Lone Ranger

"Is it because she's a girl, and you're a knight in shining armor, obliged to save damsels?"

— Archer accusing Cloud of this trope (incorrectly), Our Avatars Are in a Room Together

Web Video

"Shut your mouth, pussycat! Farmi un macchiato, pronto!"

— Italian Spiderman

"Keeping with the tradition of only being relegated to horribly-trivial B-plots, Jill helps Shauni in her quest to drive out sub-standard beach concessions."

— Allison Pregler on Baywatch, "Home Court"

Mike: The Michael Bay Misogynistic, Dehumanizing Woman on Motorcycle/Car shots. That has yet to happen in this one. It's happened in this one and that one...
Jay: They have a closeup of her butt in that one.

—Half in the Bag watches the Transformers Film Series (simultaneously)

Western Animation

Kyle: Yeah, but that sucks, to get your butt kicked by a girl, Stan.
Cartman: I would never let a woman kick my ass. If she tried anything, I'd be like, "Hey, you get your bitch ass back in the kitchen, and make me some pie!"

— South Park

"This is the Association of World Super Men! You're little girls! We are the MEN! The protectors, the hunters, the fighters and the show-offs, and the noise-makers! You are little girls. You should be at home with your mommy learning how to cook and clean and... blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-whatever-women-stuff. So leave the super heroics to the super MEN!!"

— Major Glory, The Powerpuff Girls (1998), "Members Only"

"When Virginia Woolf wrote 'every woman needs a room of one's own,' she must have been talking about the kitchen!"

— Marge Simpson

Mega Man: Whoa, where do you think you're going?
Roll: With you!
Mega Man: Not a chance, fancypants! I don't need any girl robots getting in my way!
Roll: You mean you don't want a girl robot showing you up.

— Mega Man (Ruby-Spears) cartoon

"Your job is cleaning, cooking, shopping, laundry, and anything else I can think of."

— Eustace Bagge, Courage the Cowardly Dog

Ash: Ash gets hungies at 8 o'clock. You need to get back in the kitchen, and make me dinner!
(Marceline growls)
Ash: I want a turkey sandwich, with... tomato!
(Marceline growls louder)
Ash: Also, pickles.
(Marceline kicks Ash in the groin)

— Adventure Time, "Memory of a Memory"

Real Life

"Remember, little girl, that one day you must be a German mother."

— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

"Man is, or should be, woman's protector and defender.... The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator."

— Justice Bradley, United States Supreme Court, in Bradwell v. State of Illinois (1873)

"Communism as an ideology had been passionately committed to women's equality and liberation... Yet, with rather rare exceptions...they were not prominent in the first political ranks of their parties, or indeed at all, and in the new communist-governed states they became even less visible. Indeed, women in leading political functions virtually disappeared."

— Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes

"Ladies, I have a mission for you on election day: cook! Sweet and exquisite things, please. Bring them to the polling station to be examined. The boldest can try making a tart, the most skillful, profiteroles."

— Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

"I believe it’s a biological function of men, because we tend to be larger than women, to be protective of them. If I were to try to zero in, comic-book-like, on when masculinity went awry, I’d say it was when Rod Stewart sang, 'You are my lover, you’re my best friend,’ rather than allowing there to be two people in his life who served two very important functions."

— Frank Miller, "The 1940s-style Gentleman Needs to Make a Comeback"

"I spent most of 'Timelash' tied to a pole. It was so small-minded. I have spoken to some of the other assistants and we all suffered from that problem. I found it incredible that Doctor Who has come so far and all they could find for me to do was tie me to a pole!"

— Nicola Bryant on Doctor Who

"Marina and I have always laughed about the fact that both of us can do fencing and that sort of thing. We're the ones who bash pots over warrior's heads, instead of doing karate or whatever."

— Gates McFadden on Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Qpid"

"A lot of girl power ended up on the cutting room floor, unfortunately. I had a really awesome scene where I was fighting The Foot Clan, but I think they were like, 'Why would a tiny journalist be able to kick so much ass?' So that got cut."

— Megan Fox on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

"Cut to: the dance, where Zack's forcibly twirled around by the disgusting tomboy freak (who's wearing a dress, but still gross because she's leading the dance, so might as well be dangling a pendulous pair of hairy testicles into a milkshake). These days, Rhonda, aka actress Kirsten Holmquist, hosts TLC's real-estate development show Property Ladder, but hopefully in a skirt, because I don't want our kids corrupted."

— Stuart Millard on Saved by the Bell ("Fatal Distraction"), So Excited, So Scared

"The funnest thing about writing this episode was having the GUYS be the wet blankets trying to be the voice of reason, in the face of the completely unstoppable Black Canary and Huntress. It’s always, ALWAYS the other way around, the guys do all the fun, exciting business while the women roll their eyes and try to keep a leash on... Usually, the guys are the cocky, driven action heroes and the women are the wet blankets trying to keep up."

— Gail Simone discussing Batman: The Brave and the Bold on her tumblr.

"I believe there's a misconception that if you put a girl or a woman on the cover, the game will sell less. I know I’ve been in discussions where we've been asked to push Ellie to the back and everyone at Naughty Dog just flat-out refused."

— Neil Druckmann, creative director of The Last of Us

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