In the closing stanzas of "The Little House in Kolomna", Pushkin makes an unexpected remark on the subject of gender

In the closing stanzas of "The Little House in Kolomna", Pushkin makes an unexpected remark on the subject of gender. The jocular ending looks like a parody of the moralising pronouncements that were customary in the conclusions to depictions of the passions in his day, but in our own times the joke sounds quite different.

— “So that is where the octaves were leading us!
Why raise such an alarm,
Summon the host and march out with such bragging?
A fine road you have chosen for yourselves!
Could you find no other subjects?
Have you at least some moral to offer?”
— “No… or yes: a moment’s patience…
Here is your moral: in my opinion,
It is dangerous to hire a cook for nothing;
And whoever was born a man,
It is strange and futile for him to dress up in a skirt:
Someday he will have to
Shave his beard, which does not accord
With the nature of a lady… Nothing more
Will you squeeze out of my tale.”

Literal translation