Pumpkin Eating Misogynists?

So I told the kids the rhyme of Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater today. Just the first part of it:

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,

Had a wife but couldn't keep her;

He put her in a pumpkin shell

And there he kept her very well.

Okay, so possibly it's just bizarre and not meant to mean anything. But part of me cannot help but feel that somewhere in that nonsensical gibberish, there is something unkind about women. Don't ask me what it is because I don't know; it could be just so weird personal reaction. I'm also not the type of hyper politically correct person to say anything outght to be done about. Clearly, if the intent was to insult women, it's far too bizarre to certainly interpret that, and I don't think it will teach little boys to have strange pumpkin fetishes or teach little girls to seek destructive pumpkin-eating relationships. Still, I've just always felt highly suspicious of this rhyme.

It's just a little clearer why the second line appears to have fallen from favor:

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,

Had another and didn't love her;

Peter learned to read and spell,

And then he loved her very well.

So, we've got bigamy (though, I suppose his other wife could have died in the pumpkin), and a strange indicator that illiteracy breeds contempt? Still too bizarre to quite accuse it of anything, but simply explaining another wife to the children may have led to it being commonly taken out.

However, maybe it's the original Scotish version of the rhyme that leaves an ominous cast to what, on the surface, seems so innocent:

Peter, my neeper,

Had a wife,

And he couidna' keep her,

He pat her i' the wa',

And lat a' the mice eat her.

Not sure what "wa'" means. But the mice-eating is more than clear.