Don't Be Such a Big Girl's Blouse
Posted by Maskim on March 04, 2002
In Reply to: Don't Be Such a Big Girl's Blouse posted by TheFallen on March 04, 2002
: : This ranks among the strangest expressions I learned in Britain. I would like to know it's origin and a precise explanation of its meaning.
: : Word Camel
: Origin? I don't have the slightest idea. Meaning? Very similar to the semi-archaic "don't be such a wet blanket"... i.e. don't be such a wimp. It is an insult to be exclusively applied to us men in an effort to shame us into taking some usually ludicrous and reckless action by impugning our frangible male pride - it's such fun being a member of the gender that is so easily malleable.
Big
girl's blouse. A weakling; an ineffectual person. The expression originated in
the north of England in the 1960s and was popularized by northern-based televion
programmes such as the SITCOM _Nearest and Dearest_ (1968-72), featuring Hylda
Baker and Jimmy Jewel as brother and sister Nellie and Eli Pledge who inherit
a pickle-bottling factory. ...
I find it bizarre that , while men are praised
to the skies every time they come over all big girl's blouse, women are still
penalized for getting in touch with their masculine side.
--INDIA KNIGHT in
_Sunday Times_ (17 October 1999)
From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
big girl noun (Derogatory) an effeminate male: I reckon blokes
who don't take on dares are big girls. Also, big girl's blouse.
From _The
Macquarie Book of Slang_
I was, I explaine, a big girl's blouse when it came to crumbling ledges, sheer drops, being underwater for unreasonable length of time and squeezing into jam jar sized spaces. (_Outdoor Walking_, 1992)
- Don't Be Such a Big Girl's Blouse ESC 03/05/02
- Pantywaist nita 03/07/02
- The Role of the
Blouse Word Camel 03/05/02
- The Role of the Blouse TheUnlurker 03/05/02