Hilarious pamphlet from 1918 shares advice on marriage written by a suffragette: 'Feed the brute'

Editor's note: This article was originally published on February 10, 2023. It has since been updated.

The internet has a lot of marriage advice, but this one is probably the most unusual and surely will make you laugh. It is a pamphlet by a suffragette from 1918, posted on Twitter by @historyinmemes. The pamphlet has marriage advice, especially "to young ladies." It starts with, "Do not marry at all." Then it says, "But if you must avoid the Beauty Men, Flirts, and the Bounders, Tailor's Dummies, and the Football Enthusiasts." Then it gives options on what sort of person to choose, "Look for a Strong, Tame Man, a Firelighter, Coal-getter, Window Cleaner, and Yard Swiller."

However, then it says to not "expect too much, most men are lazy, selfish, thoughtless, lying, drunken, clumsy, heavy-footed, rough, unmanly brutes, and need taming." Moreover, it further goes on to say, "If you want him to be happy, Feed the Brute." and adds on, "the same remark applies to Dogs." The pamphlet concludes with an important piece of advice, "You will be wiser not to change it, it isn't worth the risk."

The post is captioned, "Advice on marriage written in a pamphlet by a suffragette in 1918. It is currently on display at the Pontypridd Museum in Wales." The post has garnered more than 2.5 million views and 16,400 likes. Many on Twitter agreed with what the suffragette wrote. @JoshEzzell commented, "I’m sure the person who wrote this had a great personality." @BouncyMilk commented, "If you look at the big picture and don’t focus on details, it’s pretty accurate tbh." @papasezhuh wrote, "I guess the ladies can’t say that they weren’t warned. Great advice." @yarkono commented, "I love this, I read it to my mum and cousin and they loved it." @AndrewButchart1 commented, "The one positive thing is it keeps women’s expectations of men really, really low. Avoids too much disappointment. @Margareth Yellow commented, "Rule number 1 is the best."

In another hilarious story, the bestselling author of the book "Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility," Emily St. John Mandel, wanted a journalist writing for a publication to ask her if she was still married. Why? Because Mandel wanted to update her marital status to divorce on Wikipedia and this was the only way to go about it. 

It all started when Mandel shared this on Twitter: "Friends, did you know that if you have a Wikipedia page and you get a divorce, the only way to update your Wikipedia is to say you're divorced in an interview? It sounds crazy, but Wikipedia runs on citations! So anyway, all I want for Christmas is for a journalist writing a story for publication (online only is fine!) to ask me if I'm still married. Also, if you're reading this and you're one of my girlfriend’s friends, she’s not actually dating a married woman, it’s just that my Wikipedia page is a time capsule."

Dan Kois from Slate obliged to make Mandel's Christmas wish come true and did an email interview with her titled, "A Totally Normal Interview With Author Emily St. John Mandel." After two more questions, Kois got to the crux of the matter. "So are you married these days?" he asked, to which Mandel responded with a simple "no." Reiterating the question for good measure, Kois said: "Really! So you can confirm here in Slate dot com that you are not just, like, spending some time away, but are literally d-i-v-o-r-c-e-d."

"Literally! The marriage ended the first week of April, after which I spent most of the rest of 2022 in divorce settlement negotiations and then received a judgment of divorce in November," Mandel replied.