take one's hide to market

== English == === Alternative forms === carry one's own hide to market take one's own hide to market === Etymology === Probably from a German proverb, notably adapted by Karl Marx to describe the exploited worker who must sell himself (his own hide) in the labor market; the denotative metaphoric analogy is to bringing animal hides to market, but simultaneously also the self-evident connotative overtones are of chattel slavery and prostitution, in which human corporeality is exploited and personhood is devalued; in the quote below, the word hiding lends both its literal and figurative senses to the parsing: both literal skinning (of an animal) and also flogging and fleecing (of a person, that is, beating and robbing): 1867, Karl Marx, trans. Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, Capital, vol. 1 ch. 6: [T]he possessor of labour-power follows […] , timid and holding back, like one who is bringing his own hide to market and has nothing to expect but — a hiding. === Verb === bring one's own hide to market (third-person singular simple present brings one's own hide to market, present participle bringing one's own hide to market, simple past and past participle brought one's own hide to market) (US, idiomatic, often in proverbial form) To create one's own fate, as a result of one's chosen character and actions; to experience the appropriate consequences of one's behavior. ==== See also ==== make one's bed and lie in it reap what one sows stew in one's juices