caught between two stools

English

Phrase

caught between two stools

1. Unable to fit into either of two conflicting categories, and as a result likely to fail.
   • 2011, Mohammed Saad, Girma Zawdie, Theory and Practice of Triple Helix Model in Developing Countries:

     Scientists are caught between two stools. On the one hand, they have been brought up to apply rigorous experimental procedures to precisely defined problems with results that have to meet standards of peer review. On the other hand, they are being told that such reductionism is insufficient and that unless they broaden the scope of their work they will suffer reduced support.

   • 2014, Janek Wasserman, Black Vienna: The Radical Right in the Red City, 1918–1938:

     No matter how hard they tried to clarify their position, the universalists found themselves “caught between two stools”—that is, Nazism and Austrofascism— rejected by the former and rejecting the latter.

   • 2016, Laurent Vidal, Alain Musset, Waiting Territories in the Americas, page 214:

     As a result, they are caught between two stools: on the one hand, they model their social integration on traditional gender roles and struggle to live by these standards, even though these roles are at odds with what they actually feel; and on the other hand, they feel that these gender roles constrain them and diminish their sense of their personal identity, either because they cannot live by the standards these roles imposed on them or because their aspiration to put them selve first encourages them to refuse to allow themselves to be hemmed in.