"Sissies, fairies, pansies gay"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/17/2013 12:23 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>A check of GB shows (most irritatingly) that "pansies gay" was something of
>a cliche' description of flowering pansies ever since William Shenstone
>wrote his oft-reprinted "Irregular Ode after Sickness" in 1758.
>
>"Gay pansies" is the more prosaic and more frequent form (1717: ECCO).
>
>So "gay" means "gay" even in this case.
>
>Whether it also means "homosexual" seems unknowable.
>
>So the brackets must remain. It does seem possible that the old association
>of "gay" with "pansies" may have helped promote the newer sense - a little.

But in Fred's quote "gay" is also associated with "sissy" and
"fairy".  Were they in Shenstone too?  Can they mean "Bright or
lively-looking, esp. in colour; brilliant, showy"?

Joel

>JL
>
>On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 11:44 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "Sissies, fairies, pansies gay"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 2/17/2013 07:34 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> > >...
> > >1933 _Baltimore Afro-American_ 21 Oct. 17 (ProQuest Historical
> > >Newspapers)  The products engendered by union of these decadents of
> > >changing sexes is generally an unenviable type of degeneracy
> > >characterized by homicidal or homosexual proclivities.  Sissies,
> > >fairies, pansies gay, The woods are full of them today.
> >
> > And it's a much pithier verse than N. Coward's of 1939:
> > "Everyone's here and frightfully gay, Nobody cares what people say,
> > Though the Riviera Seems really much queerer Than Rome at its height."
> > (Rivierer/quairer??)
> >
> > I am imagining a musical comedy satire on "Little Red Riding
> > Hood."  The writers of "Forbidden Broadway" restage Sondheim's "Into
> > the Woods."  The recurrent sung motif: "The woods are full of them
> > today."  The Broadway types for the Big Bad Wolf are endless.  I
> > start with Liberace.
> >
> > Joel
> >
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> >
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>
>
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