and there were plenty of efficient/scientific housekeeping essays (directed at women who puttered in old-fashioned ways) at around that time, suggesting that normal housekeeping/maintenance activities were suddenly being recast as “puttering” and newly immoral, or at least wasteful. women should either hire a maid or get a vacuum cleaner.
re: frittering
frittering away one's time... as if to fritter is a transitive; puttering tends to be intransitive (seemingly pointless?) activity.
btw, my “wealthy man, not poor man; poor woman, but not wealthy woman” was said in the context of who "gets" to putter, with impunity.
I appreciate the thought you put into your answer, and in choosing an excerpt from your archive. You got me thinking... and this morning a song lyric popped into my head:
"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day /
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way"
I always thought David Gilmour was singing to me, so I'm a fritterer after all.
Only if you find it meaningless enough to sustain your spirit. If this research starts to reveal any Grand Truths, I urge you to abandon it immediately ; )
Does anyone feel like puttering leans male-coded, and frittering female-coded?
re : female-coding --
the housewive's puttering has been presented as the glue that makes the house a home. I'm thinking of
Ruth Cameron's essay “Puttering” (1911), https://jmcvey.net/putterings/035.htm
and there were plenty of efficient/scientific housekeeping essays (directed at women who puttered in old-fashioned ways) at around that time, suggesting that normal housekeeping/maintenance activities were suddenly being recast as “puttering” and newly immoral, or at least wasteful. women should either hire a maid or get a vacuum cleaner.
re: frittering
frittering away one's time... as if to fritter is a transitive; puttering tends to be intransitive (seemingly pointless?) activity.
btw, my “wealthy man, not poor man; poor woman, but not wealthy woman” was said in the context of who "gets" to putter, with impunity.
I appreciate the thought you put into your answer, and in choosing an excerpt from your archive. You got me thinking... and this morning a song lyric popped into my head:
"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day /
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way"
I always thought David Gilmour was singing to me, so I'm a fritterer after all.
that said, I should probably count how many of my instances of puttering pertained to (1) females, (2) males, (3) humans in general, and (4) "other."
Only if you find it meaningless enough to sustain your spirit. If this research starts to reveal any Grand Truths, I urge you to abandon it immediately ; )