"Every minute this broad spends outside of bed is a waste of time"
About this Quote
Cruelty lands faster when it’s phrased like a punchline, and Michael Todd’s line is built to get a laugh before anyone has time to ask who’s getting bruised. “This broad” isn’t just dated slang; it’s a power move. The woman is stripped of name, craft, interiority. She becomes a type, a prop, a body whose “use” is measured in minutes and managed like a production budget. Todd, a showman-producer famous for spectacle, talks like a man who thinks in schedules, logistics, and returns. Even desire gets rendered as efficiency: outside of bed, she’s depreciating inventory.
The intent is partly locker-room bravado, partly publicity-ready wickedness. Mid-century celebrity culture rewarded men who could be ruthless and charming in the same breath. A producer’s job is to manufacture attention; this line does that by compressing misogyny into a clean, quotable barb. It’s the kind of remark that reads as “funny” because it’s extreme, and the extremity provides cover: surely he doesn’t mean it literally. That’s the trick. The hyperbole lets the speaker float the underlying premise - that a woman’s value is sexual availability - while keeping plausible deniability.
Context matters: Todd’s era sold glamour as a product and women as its packaging, especially around the star system and the male gatekeepers behind it. The line isn’t just about sex; it’s about control. Bed is the one place she’s “useful” on his terms, and everything else - her ambitions, boredom, talent, autonomy - is framed as wasted time.
The intent is partly locker-room bravado, partly publicity-ready wickedness. Mid-century celebrity culture rewarded men who could be ruthless and charming in the same breath. A producer’s job is to manufacture attention; this line does that by compressing misogyny into a clean, quotable barb. It’s the kind of remark that reads as “funny” because it’s extreme, and the extremity provides cover: surely he doesn’t mean it literally. That’s the trick. The hyperbole lets the speaker float the underlying premise - that a woman’s value is sexual availability - while keeping plausible deniability.
Context matters: Todd’s era sold glamour as a product and women as its packaging, especially around the star system and the male gatekeepers behind it. The line isn’t just about sex; it’s about control. Bed is the one place she’s “useful” on his terms, and everything else - her ambitions, boredom, talent, autonomy - is framed as wasted time.
Quote Details
| Topic | Romantic |
|---|
More Quotes by Michael
Add to List
