"Cheap date" redux

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jan 27 04:12:55 UTC 2010


Somewhen, a few years back, I wondered aloud what motivate a woman to
define herself, of her own free will, as a "cheap date," when the
phrase is an insult. The consensus reply of both men and women was
that the phrase is *not* derogatory. So, why *shouldn't* a woman
define herself as a "cheap date," if she so wishes?

A current TV commercial has dialogue between two buddies about a date
that one of them had been on. IT is approximately as follows:

A, And she ordered only from the cheap menu!

B. Yeah?!

A. Yeah! So, I said to her, "Whoa! You're a cheap date!"

B. Yeah?

A.  She answered, "What?!" So, thinking that she was hard of hearing,
I said, "YOU'RE A CHEAP DATE!"

[POW!!!]


There's a clear implication in the commercial that this woman didn't
appreciate being described as a "cheap date."

Clearly, a TV ad is not necessarily meant to be a reflection of
reality. It's relaxing, nevertheless, to know that at least one other
person - whoever wrote that commercial - also feels that "cheap date"
is demeaning and that my own grasp of reality is probably not much
weaker than anyone else's. ;-)

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list