Real Men Don't Eat Quiche

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (June 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Real Men Don't Eat Quiche, by Bruce Feirstein, was a bestselling tongue-in-cheek book on stereotypes about masculinity, published in 1982 (ISBN 0-671-44831-5). It is the source of the term quiche-eater, meaning a man who is effeminate or who lacks masculine virtue. It was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 53 weeks, and sold over 1.6 million copies.

[edit] Quiche-eater

The quiche eater expression survives in computer programming circles, where it means a person far removed from practice and concerned only with academic matters, unwilling to "get their hands dirty". Being humorous in nature, it is usually a fairly mild insult.

[edit] Sequels

The book was followed in 1982 by a cookbook, Real Men Don't Cook Quiche, a companion book by Joyce Jillson, Real Women Don't Pump Gas and a 1983 book by illustrator Lee Lorenz titled Real Dogs Don't Eat Leftovers. For 1984, matching Real Men Don't Eat Quiche and Real Women Don't Pump Gas calendars were released. There were also many imitations from other publishers, most notably Real Kids Don't Say Please, Real Women Never Pump Iron and Real Women Send Flowers. In 1992, a sequel, Real Men Don't Bond was released.