"Sissies, fairies, pansies gay"

[Jonathan Lighter]

No, but so what? We're talking pansies here.

JL

On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 12:39 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> 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 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:
> >
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> > > -----------------------
> > > 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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> truth."
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