#LottesLexicon – Who is your sassiest best friend? The queen of side eye and acerbic observations? The one who’s first on the dancefloor, last to leave a party and an endless compendium of OMG anecdotes that often begin with a wild one-night-stand and end with the hair flick emoji? If you don’t think you have a Sassy Best Friend, maybe that’s because you are one (or you need to get out more). But have you ever stopped to wonder if there’s more to the person in your life who is always a good time, won’t take any bullshit and can deploy the Beyoncé ‘boy, bye’ wave at any moment? The adjective, an old English word that derived from saucy and means ‘self-assured, spirited, bold,’ as much as ‘impudent, outspoken, provocative,’ can fast turn people into cliches and diminish the nuances of personality. On television, our favourite, most giffable characters are the sassy ones: Titus in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Cookie in Empire, Samantha in Sex And The City. They’re often gay men, black women and/or powerful women. Defining them as sassy is a way of making their ‘otherness’ more palatable to the masses. God forbid a black woman was actually angry, or a female boss used men as playthings or a gay guy spoke about sex without it being in inverted commas and punctuated by a pantomime wink wink. Today, TV shows provide the Greek chorus to our real lives, so it’s no wonder that these tropes have filtered out into the world and we find ourselves unfairly labelling people as sassy when they have an authentic point to make. Sometimes women are angry. Like, really effin’ in a rage, and shouty and aggressive and red-faced and ugly. Or sometimes we’re pissed off that a man has taken the credit for our idea at work, or keeps talking over us in meetings, or starts mansplaining Brexit and, sorry, but we’re going to pull them up on it. ‘Oh, she’s a sassy one,’ might be the response. Saying this is a way of containing and explaining female emotion. I suggest you do the same next time a man loudly expresses an opinion you disagree with. ‘No need to be so sassy John,’ is the ultimate passive-aggresive put down. Try it… Follow the link in our bio to read more. (✏️: @lottejeffs)

elleukさん(@elleuk)が投稿した動画 - 2017/02/12 23:07:31