Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker contrasts childhood poverty with the limited toys available to girls in that era.
In plain terms
I was so poor that being a boy was the only thing I had to play with.
What can you take from it?
Poverty can limit choices so severely that gender becomes your only toy.

Where it applies

  • childhood memories
  • economic hardship
  • social commentary

Putting it to work

  • storytelling
  • social critique
  • humor

Questions to consider

  • How does poverty shape childhood?
  • What defines play in hard times?

Another view

The joke relies on outdated gender norms that may not resonate today.

More from Jacob Cohen

  1. I told my wife the truth. I told her I was seeing a psychiatrist. Then she told me the truth: that she was seeing a psychiatrist, two plumbers, and a bartender.

    Permalink to quote #20
  2. I was so ugly... When I was born, the doctor slapped my mother!'

    Permalink to quote #22
  3. I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous- everyone hasn't met me yet.

    Permalink to quote #19

Related quotes

  1. Regret is a sign of weakness. Besides, girls have cooties.

    Mikey WayMikey Way quote #2
  2. She had got up behind the chaise and her cloak had been caught by the wheel and was jammed in and it hung there. She was crying after it. Poor thing. Mr. Graha…

    Dorothy WordsworthDorothy Wordsworth quote #4
  3. Father calls me William, sister calls me Will, Mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill! Mighty glad I ain't a girl-ruther be a boy, Without them s…

    Eugene FieldEugene Field quote #9