1. Guy who is very “girly”. Has rosie cheeks and prances around like a nancy boy. Dresses with flare.
2. Someone who says he isn’t gay but acts like a fag all the time.
One week after she appeared on the July 7 edition of MSNBC Live and referred to Sens. Barack Obama and John Kerry (D-MA) as “two Ivy League fancy lads,” Fox News hosted Republican strategist Andrea Tantaros on the July 14 edition of America’s Newsroom, during which she called Obama “a fancy lad.” Tantaros was discussing the possibility of Obama’s speaking in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate and called the proposition “risky,” adding that “Obama needs some gravitas, and so that’s why they’re sending him there. He’s a fancy lad. He likes fancy language with fancy backdrops. And that’s exactly why they’re putting him there.” On neither MSNBC nor Fox News was her remark challenged by the anchors of the shows. On MSNBC, Democratic strategist David Goodfriend responded to Tantaros by saying: “Well, first of all, just in response to what Andrea said, there isn’t a single Ivy League fancy guy on that ticket.”
This is so weak—and yes, to my Log Cabin peeps out there, is this the kind of GOP we’re supposed to be educating ourselves about? Will McCain call them on this, or let it slide?
“Well, everybody knows that a book club is no place for a man. So why has Barack Obama suddenly turned into Oprah? [Producer] Willie Geist rounds up the girls, brings the chardonnay, and heads to the Oprah book club—or the Obama book club—when we come back.”
...Carlson recently referred to Obama’s “rhetoric” as “kind of wimpy” and said that Obama ”seems like kind of a wuss.” Carlson also said that Obama “sounds like a pothead.”
During the segment, Carlson discussed the book clubs with Geist, who claimed that “Obama has violated the trust of men everywhere,” and said: ”It makes you wonder what he won’t compromise of himself. Are we going to have mani/pedi parties next? You know what I mean?”
So. . . reading makes you gay? Or discussing books with other people makes you gay?
It’s so strange. . . I always thought that a desire to have sex with persons of your own gender made you gay. Still, since so many Republicans DO, apparently, want to have sex with persons of their own gender, and they CANNOT be gay (the MSM says so), I must be confused on the definition.
Oh, but it’s OK if a woman does it, doncha know. Just ask Maureen Dowd.
(As for Tucker Carlson, for a guy who wears a bow tie all the time to go around questioning other men’s masculinity...I’d satirize that, but really, the job’s already done.)
She was concentrating so hard on saying Kerry was “branded and beaten” by Bush (Our weapons are fear and surprise—and alliteration) that she almost didn’t get “fancy lad” out. Shouldn’t they limit the newbies to one meme per sentence? But she sure is perky, so I guess they thought it was worth the risk.
And what makes me laugh is that it just doesn’t seem to stick to Obama--he’s about as un-fancy as they get, personality-wise. He has mastered the Very Serious Presidential Guy persona so well that the idea of him “ladding” in any way, fancy or otherwise, just doesn’t fly.
Isn’t there kind of an “uppity” vibe that goes along with the term “Fancy Lad” too?
Or maybe it’s just me…
Oh, and Tucker Carlson? He’s a living, breathing, walking dancing, stereotype of anxious wingnut masculinity. If he projected any more obviously he’d have to work in a movie theater. He’s pretty much mock-proof…
Book groups are womanly, therefore books are womanly, and reading makes you like a woman AKA totally gay, because all gay men want to be and act like women. I’d call it a logic train, but we all know it aint that.
Starting book clubs so that others read your books sounds like something a healthy egoist like Donald Trump would do. But Obama always has a manliness trump card to play—I think he should challenge Andrea to a little one-on-one.
When I hear “fancy lad” I immediately think of the Chris Elliott movie Cabin Boy. Obama would appear on a list of fancy lads somewhere after Chuck Norris (who really does have a weenie beard and probably irons his jeans) and before Anderson Cooper (who isn’t afraid of dirt as long as it doesn’t touch his hair.) John McCain, son of an admiral? Fancy white suits don’t exactly make you one of us, doofball.
the term fancy lad makes me think of smartly dressed mods racing around on vespas. which doesnt make any difference in how i think of obama, but does make me a tad tingly in my trousers.
this entire election cycle is like epic fail wingnut style. i dont at all doubt the ability of the democrats to lose elections, but unless obama were to streak naked across the white house lawn with a ticking bomb strapped to him while he sings “i feel pretty” i just dont see how we can lose an election those idiots are handing to us on a platter.
It’s as if they had all these sexist jokes to throw at Hilary, but, having been thwarted there, they’ve repackaged them slightly to throw at Obama. Why waste a good bigoted insult?
Gay is the (mercifully, fading a big) big gun for the Republicans. It’s big bad and scary, and trumps everything (for them at least.)
The trick, it seems to me, is to look carefully at where they are aiming it - which is usually to try to shore up the glaring deficiencies of their own candidate. They don’t pull out (heh, heh) the gay card on the occasions that they actually have a good candidate.
So, what is gay about Obama? He dresses well, appears poised on television, speaks well and is intelligent - which means he must read, and is well versed in current culture issues.
McCain is a sclub. Whatever his strengths may be, he look horrible on TV, can’t manage a soundbite to save his life, and when a camera gets shoved in his face unexpectedly he can’t string a sentence together. He publicly admits he doesn’t use the internet, etc.
So this cycle, gay means being intelligent, well-read, well-spoken, and having a team that puts together television and campaign materials that actually look good and make the candidate look good.
Last cycle, gay meant a college education and an actual military career. Before that, gay meant looking like you went to college and weren’t a wasted frat-boy cowboy wannabee.
If it were Obama who had the military career and McCain with the history of grassroots work, we’d be getting sly innuendoes about all-male schools and a suspicious interest in uniforms, as well as not-so-subtle hints that by definition he was out of touch (heh, heh) with women.
For them, the gay-baiting is the given. It’s so much a given, I doubt they even notice it while they’re doing it. It’s just a standard slur to be used as necessary - which says more than enough about them for me.
Well, considering the Republican party only exists because of insecure masculinity, overcompensation for having a small penis, and a raw terror of someone thinking you could be gay, this seems like pretty par-for-the-course projection/diversion.
When I hear “fancy lad” I immediately think of the Chris Elliott movie Cabin Boy.
Well, that is where the term originated, right? I certainly don’t remember ever hearing it prior to 1994, when that movie came out.
Leave it to the conservative media to try to inject a 14-year-old pop culture reference that very few people actually saw into the discussion in an effort to sound hip and irreverent. Hey, Fox News, you know what else the kids love? That rock and/ or roll music like Dokken or Bell Biv DeVoe.
So Obama is now simultaneously the stylish nelly who uses big words and the big black stud who is going to screw all the white women. At the country club.
Of course, this make a certain kind of sense when you realize that “fancy lad” is also just another way of saying “elitist”, which is just another way of saying “uppity n****r”.
Well, the “original fancy lad” is Nathaniel Mayweather, but maybe we could identify another box-office bomb that developed a modest cult following to describe John McCain? Shakes the Clown<i>? <i>Problem Child? Seed of Chucky? Suburban Commando?
Since we’re sharing, the term “fancy lad” makes me immediately think of Howard Pyle’s awesome cheesefest version of the Robin Hood stories. I wonder if the wingnuts have seen the Will Scarlet passage where Robin and a few of his men take an approaching stranger for a fancy lad and then some: scarlet doublet, prancing posture, and a rose held to his nose.
At first the passage reads like rampant late-Victorian homophobia--I mean, like a no holds barred frat-boy reaction to effeminacy in another male--until the “gaily feathered bird” aka “pretty mincing fellow” aka “whipped-cream gallant” impresses/scares the hell out of them by pulling a tree up by the roots to fashion a quarterstaff. He proves to be incredibly strong and trounces his antagonists and become a respected part of the Merry Men (which in itself...has sort of a “fancy lad” ring to it...I’ve always wondered about Pyle’s sexuality...anyone know? His book overflows with homosocial descriptions and homosexual subtext--moreso than any other Robin Hood version I’ve encountered pre-1970).
If Obama is a fancy lad, Pyle’s lesson is clear: don’t underestimate him. He’ll lay you flat.
Ranylt, Yes, i just re-read the Pyle as I’m working on a trans Robin Hood novel.
I was quite disappointed with that bit. My mind immediately said “Anyone who leads a band of 1400 merry men and not a woman in sight has no business going gay bashing.” And of course, Will is his nephew…
(and all the “how I love thee” and “sweet chuck” stuff, and Marian gets THOUGHT about twice and never appears...)
I agree with your assessment. Of both book and Obama.
Actually, what Fancy Lad means to me is the name of a once famous race horse. I’m not even sure of the era, or if perhaps it was a fictional horse from Dick Francis’ novels.
“Well, everybody knows that a book club is no place for a man. So why has Barack Obama suddenly turned into Oprah? [Producer] Willie Geist rounds up the girls, brings the chardonnay, and heads to the Oprah book club—or the Obama book club—when we come back.”
So. . . reading makes you gay? Or discussing books with other people makes you gay?
It’s so strange. . . I always thought that a desire to have sex with persons of your own gender made you gay. Still, since so many Republicans DO, apparently, want to have sex with persons of their own gender, and they CANNOT be gay (the MSM says so), I must be confused on the definition.