SWINE, women, and bees cannot be turned

Insights

The limit of control

The proverb asserts that certain forces—whether biological (instinct) or human (will)—are immune to external authority. It serves as a warning against the futile attempt to coerce entities that operate by their own internal logic.

Natural obstinacy

By grouping women with livestock and insects, the saying implies that female determination is not a rational choice but an intractable natural force, akin to the stubbornness of a pig or the momentum of a swarm.

Irreversible momentum

It suggests a specific kind of focused drive: once a decision is made or a movement begun, the subject becomes deaf to persuasion and resistant to physical blocking.

Agricultural Realism

The proverb draws on specific husbandry challenges. Pigs are notorious for bolting and refusing to be driven in a straight line, often requiring immense effort to steer. Bees, when swarming, follow the queen via pheromones and cannot be 'herded' by human intervention. The comparison relies on these tangible rural frustrations to make its point.

Misogynistic Taxonomy

This proverb belongs to a historical genre of 'triadic insults' (e.g., 'A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree') that categorize women alongside animals or objects. This rhetorical strategy dehumanizes the female will, framing a woman's autonomy not as intellectual independence but as a troublesome, beastly instinct that inconveniences men.

The Nuance of 'Turned'

The verb 'turn' operates on two levels. Physically, it means diverting a path (for the animals). Figuratively, it means 'persuading' or 'dissuading' (for the woman). The proverb suggests that trying to change a woman's mind is as physically exhausting and futile as trying to redirect a swarm of insects.

Fuller's Collection

Thomas Fuller’s 1732 *Gnomologia*, the primary source, was a collection noted for its wit and cynicism. Fuller often documented proverbs that reflected the 'received wisdom' of the era regarding social hierarchy, preserving the prejudices of the 18th-century male perspective in gnomic form.

Rhetorical Devices

Tricolon

The rule of three ('Swine, women, and bees') creates a rhythmic list that implies a comprehensive category of 'unmanageable things,' lending the statement a false air of completeness and authority.

Bathos

Sandwiching 'women' between 'swine' and 'bees' creates a jarring, humorous incongruity. This placement lowers the social status of the human element, mocking the dignity of women by association with barnyard animals and bugs.

Zeugma

The single verb 'turned' applies to three different subjects in slightly different ways (physical direction vs. mental persuasion), binding the disparate elements together in a single stroke of logic.