Queeny tops = "blouse"?
Greg Pratt
According to him, the phrase refers to effeminate gay men who are tops.
This sort of sexual expression is unique enough, he claims, that it
deserves its own special term.
I had never heard this usage before, so I tried searching for an
explanation, or even mere mention, via Google. I found tons of
references to gay men *wearing* blouses (drag, cross-dressing,
etc.); the only place I found it was on UrbanDictionary
(http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blouse). But
that definition suggests a different angle: "A really femmie gay guy
who fancies himself as the top in man to man sex," suggesting that the
object's belief that he is a top is, shall we say, wishful thinking.
Could someone here describe this more insightfully, or point me to a
better reference than the barely-edited UrbanDictionary?
--
Gregory Pratt g...@panix.com
East Rutherford, NJ, USA http://www.panix.com/~gp/
"You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."
PGP Key Fingerprint: DC60 FCDE 91E2 3D41 91A3 45DB B474 3D3A 3621 AAFE
Dennis Lewis
>
>... I had never heard this usage before, so I tried searching for an
>explanation, or even mere mention, via Google. I found tons of
>references to gay men *wearing* blouses (drag, cross-dressing,
>etc.); the only place I found it was on UrbanDictionary
>(http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blouse). But
>that definition suggests a different angle: "A really femmie gay guy
>who fancies himself as the top in man to man sex," suggesting that the
Well, the etymology is logical -- "blouse" = woman's top; "blouse" =
feminine guy who "tops" during sex. Perhaps it originally meant
someone who only thinks he's a top and is evolving into meaning a
"non-straight acting" guy who either just thinks he's a top or
actually is a top.
On the off chance the term might have been more common back when gay
life was more circumspect, I checked my copy of The New (!!!)
Universities Webster Dictionary, (c) 1935. It defines "blouse":
a light, loose over-garment; the undress uniform of the
U.S. army; a French workman.
WTF!? Was that common 1930s American slang for a laborer in Paris or
had a French word for a person somehow become attached to a garment
during its migration into English?
I checked one of my French textbooks. The little illustration confirms
... "blouse" has the same meaning in French as in English. (It's even
feminine -- "la blouse," "une blouse.") And, most appropriately, in
this textbook it's introduced in the chapter in which students "visit"
a beauty salon (Chez le coiffeur):
"Je voudrais un shampooing et une coupe, s'il vous plait, monsieur."
"D'accord. Heureusement je peux couper vos cheveux tout de suite."
chris....@utoronto.ca
> >that definition suggests a different angle: "A really femmie gay guy
> >who fancies himself as the top in man to man sex," suggesting that the
> >object's belief that he is a top is, shall we say, wishful thinking. ...
it's certainly a new one, or at least more nuanced than I've heard
before, to moi.
> [dennis]
> Well, the etymology is logical -- "blouse" = woman's top; "blouse" =
> feminine guy who "tops" during sex. Perhaps it originally meant
> someone who only thinks he's a top and is evolving into meaning a
> "non-straight acting" guy who either just thinks he's a top or
> actually is a top.
>
> On the off chance the term might have been more common back when gay
> life was more circumspect, I checked my copy of The New (!!!)
> Universities Webster Dictionary, (c) 1935. It defines "blouse":
>
> a light, loose over-garment; the undress uniform of the
> U.S. army; a French workman.
>
> WTF!? Was that common 1930s American slang for a laborer in Paris or
> had a French word for a person somehow become attached to a garment
> during its migration into English?
I think it refers (in the garment sense) to any shirt that isn't very
tailored and snug, for male or female. certainly novels written about
the time of WWII referred to a (male) uniform shirt as a "blouse",
with no subtextual inferences, it was just a synonym. [I'm thinking
of novels by Monica Dickens in this case]
I've also heard it used, on UK television within the last ten years,
as part of a not-unkind figure of speech "he's a big ol' girl's
blouse", meaning "he's not very butch and tough". Someone who is
startled and squeals in a rather higher-than-butch register might get
the epithet, or who doesn't pick up very heavy loads of wood when the
task is carting 'em from point A to point B.
manly I prefer a chemise myself panda
David Kaye
> I had never heard this usage before, so I tried searching for an
> explanation, or even mere mention, via Google. I found tons of
> references to gay men *wearing* blouses (drag, cross-dressing,
> etc.)
A blouse is a loose-fitting shirt often used by artists, so this is
probably the derivation. I remember when going to Catholic grade
school and going to Mervyn's, which was the clothing outfitter for our
school uniforms. Our shirts were referred to as blouses. I asked my
mom why and she said it was because the shirt was loose -- it wsn't a
tailored fit.
So, there you have it, more or less.
Tim McDaniel
Dennis Lewis <d...@sprynet.com> wrote:
>I checked my copy of The New (!!!)
>Universities Webster Dictionary, (c) 1935. It defines "blouse":
>
> a light, loose over-garment; the undress uniform of the
> U.S. army; a French workman.
>
>WTF!? Was that common 1930s American slang for a laborer in Paris or
>had a French word for a person somehow become attached to a garment
>during its migration into English?
I use <http://onelook.com/> for my dictionary lookups. It's a
meta-dictionary with hundreds of general and specialized dictionaries.
For regular words, I can go to the American Heritage and a few other
biggies. For technical jargon or slang, they're likely to have a
specialized dic for it. And they have a few historical dics if I want
historical comparisons.
<http://www.merrycoz.org/voices/bartlett/AMER03.HTM#b>,
Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett (1848),
BLOUSE. (Fr. blouse.) A loose garment made of brown linen,
fastened round the waist with a belt; worn by men and boys in
France, and lately introduced partially into this country.
I may have to read that dic. It looks fascinating. E.g., it has to
define "Blue-berry: a fruit resembling the whortleberry in appearance
and taste." "Blue" is "Gloomy, severe; extreme, ultra.".
BLUE-BOOK. A printed book containing the names of all the persons
holding office under the Government of the United States, with the
amount of their pay. It answers to the Red-Book of England.
BLUE-NOSE. The slang name for a native of Nova Scotia.
BLUE DEVILS. To have the blue devils is to be dispirited.
THE BLUES. A euphemism for blue devils. To have a fit of the
blues, is to have a fit of the blue devils, to be low-spirited.
But a fair number of definitions mention that the term is current in
England, making me wonder why it's called a dictionary of
"Americanisms".
Anyway. <http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Blouse>, from the 1911
Encyclopedia Britannica:
BLOUSE, a word (taken from the French) used for any loosely
fitting bodice belted at the waist. In France it meant originally
the loose upper garment of linen or cotton, generally blue, worn
by French workmen to preserve their clothing, and, by
transference, the workman himself.