[Vocabulary] confusion in usage

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Proffy

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Is the term bluestocking offensive(in any way) is used to refer to an intellectual woman?

can I have an alternative to 'crocodile tears' expression. Just want to try something new....:)

thank you
 

Tdol

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1 It might sound patronising and it has connotations of dowdiness. It's not neutral IMO.
2 Are you looking for another expression and not something like fake tears?
 

Barb_D

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It also suggests that women should not be intellectual, that a women involved in intellectual pursuits is an oddity.

However, it might be unlikely to offend because I bet 90% of Americans under 30 have never heard this term.

Anyway, don't use it.
 

Grumpy

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Is the term bluestocking offensive (in any way) if used to refer to an intellectual woman?

Can I have an alternative to the 'crocodile tears' expression. I just want to try something new....:)

Thank you

I'm an elderly British male - so I'm probably not best qualified to comment!
However, I wouldn't use the expression when referring to anyone living in the present day, mainly because it is out of date. It relates to a period when intellectual women were very much in the minority, and so I might say "My grandmother graduated from university in 1910. She was a real bluestocking in her time", but I would never think of calling my daughter (who got her degree in the 1990's) a bluestocking. Things have moved on, and gender is [thank God] no longer an issue when it comes to intellectual attainment - in the more enlightened parts of the world, at least.

I'm afraid that nothing springs to mind as an alternative to "crocodile tears". Sorry!
 

emsr2d2

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I've never heard of "bluestocking".
 

5jj

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