On Sep 14, 2005, at 17:49, Jean Nathan wrote:
Don't know the origin of the expression "red hat, no drawers", but it
was around in my mother's generation, when most people, both men and
women wore hats. I was never allowed to wear a red hat, not even a
knitted one.
Think it might have some connection with a red light indicating the
house of ill-repute, and a red hat indicating a prostitute before they
openly hung about on street corners.
I think you're dead on target -- and I'm sory you didn't send *this*
message to lace as well... <g>
Colours are more a sociological problem than a linguistic one but,
since colours are *named*, I have come accross some of them all the
same; willy-nilly while at the U (18-23), and with an increasing
appetite since :)
"Red" is probably *the* most outstanding colour, in every culture. We
can debate whether it's black or white that means death, whether it's
white or blue that denotes innocence - they vary from culture to
culture, especially if you move from one continent to another...
But red has always meant "life", accross the world, because of the -
much less philosophical - connection to blood. Menstrual blood, birth
blood flood... It's *life*. When there isn't any, it's death, whether
it's white or black.
And, of course, one of the activities inextricably tied to all ideas of
"life" is sexual activity; Mary may have conceived by just looking at
Joseph, but the hoi polloi has yet to learn the trick (learning the
trick has cost Eve expulsion from Paradise, *on top of* a painful
birth; I've always found it viciously unfair <g>).
So... You wear red shoes - and you're suspect. Heck, even *wanting* to
have red shoes is sinful (read your Hans Andersen <g>). Auel, in her
series of pre-historic (fictional) books may have struck many "off
notes", but she *has* done a lot of research and her idea that
"sexually available" women painted ther feet red, while not
*prove-able* is an emminently *reasonable* premise...
I remember reading a sci-fi story long ago which also dealt with
colours and their meanings, *credibly*. According to it, if you wore
red anywhere below the waist - skirts, trousers, socks, shoes - you
signalled "sexual interest", if not necessarily "sexual availability"
(and nobody wore red above the waist at all; the dichotomy between
innocence and sin was *perfect* <g>)
In those terms, I wonder what a red hat might mean (beyond: it doesn't
suit my complexion)... "My head is permanently tuned in to sex"? Really
and truly: "red top, bare bottom"? If so, waiting till one's old, sort
of defies the purpose, no? Given that women are much more willing to
forgive the wrinkles below the hat than men are?
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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