I have heard two people use “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” in casual conversation today. I have only the vaguest notion of what the saying means, something like “if it’s good for one person, it’s good for another person.” Odd.
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The expression is usually
The expression is usually “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander”.
From: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/20/messages/220.html:
SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE IS SAUCE FOR THE GANDER - ” ‘Goose’ and ‘gander’ here stand for women and men generally, and accordingly the proverb declares that what is good for a woman is also good for a man. An earlier saying based on the same logic, ‘As well for the coowe as for the bull,’ appeared in John Heywood’s ‘A Dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue’ (1546), and the first rendering of the current saying was recorded in John Ray’s ‘A collection of English Proverbs’ (1670) as ‘That that’s good sawce for a goose, is good for a gander.’ Ray added a further explanation: ‘This is a woman’s proverb.’ The English writer Roger L’Estrange gave virtually the modern version in his translation of ‘Aesop’s Fables’ (1692), quoting it as ‘Sauce for a Goose is Sauce for a Gander’.” From “Wise Words and Wives’ Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New” by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).
I wonder if more than man and
I wonder if more than man and woman it’s alluding to husband and wife.
If you take a gander at
If you take a gander at someone being goosed, is that saucy?
NILS - hee hee, i think YOU
NILS - hee hee, i think YOU are saucy!
I was wondering this exact
I was wondering this exact same thing!
Gander is a male goose, so
Gander is a male goose, so what is good for the goose (the female) is good for the gander (male). In other words, what is good for the female is good for the male.
Mindy
This is an old post, but I
This is an old post, but I can’t help, in this day of women’s lib, to think that it’s about time we changed our perspective to:
What’s good for the gander is good for the goose. And that might also apply to the comment by NILS. Smile.
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