Houseboy

For the novel by Ferdinand Oyono, see Houseboy (novel).

A houseboy (alternatively spelled houseboi in earlier colonial contexts) is typically a male domestic worker or personal assistant who performs cleaning and personal chores. The term has history within British colonialism, military contexts, and the gay male community.

British Empire

Historically, houseboy was a British Empire term for a male housecleaner. He was usually, but not always, an native person who worked for a British family living in the colony. A female housecleaner was called a housegirl. Both sexes often were required to wear a uniform.

Military

Houseboy was also used as an American slang term originating in World War II for a native boy who helped a soldier perform basic responsibilities like cleaning, laundry, ironing, shoe-shining, running errands, and the like. The British English term for this occupation was Batman (military).

Gay culture

A houseboy in gay male culture is a young man who performs domestic work, where the employment normally has an erotic, not necessarily sexual, aspect.

Cultural references

The houseboy became a plot device or stock character in literature and film.

• The cartoon character Mr. Magoo had a houseboy.
• The Houseboy, a 1973 stage play by Irving Wardle, filmed for ITV in 1982.
• The Houseboy, a 2007 LGBT film starring Nick May.
• Houseboy is the name of a diary-form novel written by Ferdinand Oyono that criticizes the morality of colonialism.
• Bachelor Father, a 1957–62 American TV series starring John Forsythe and Sammee Tong as his Chinese houseboy.

See also

• Housekeeper (domestic worker)
• Fagging (boarding school)
• wikt:Garçon, the French word for "boy", also used as an occupational title
• House officer, previously "houseman", various grades of doctor in British hospitals
• House negro, as opposed to Field hand, under Slavery in the United States