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HelpNegative connotation, Pansy/Scarlett O'Hara, and Pansy Parkinson
in reply to a message by Felie
As you mentioned, its usage would /seem/ more British. On the surface, the flower and French connections would make for a nice name. However, as others have brought up, the name now has a negative connotation of "weak, wimpy, sissy."
You might hear the phrase "Don't be such a pansy!" when one person is trying to coerce another into doing something s/he really doesn't want to do. It comes from the name being used as an insult, implying a man was homosexual or effeminate or "thought too much" (from the French connection) -- and was thus cowardly.
As mentioned here
http://www.newmainetimes.org/articles/2013/04/23/not-deferential-enough-pansy/
1929 was the year such a connotatuon "started."
Though I don't have a source for it (yet), I had an epiphany about Margaret Mitchell after reading that article. In Gone With The Wind, [Katie] Scarlett O'Hara is a survivor. She values "gumption" and is not afraid to do things others wouldn't do out of fear of offending social norms. Like a [P]ansy, she is strong and will come back from whatever setback she encounters.
Hence why Margaret Mitchell probably originally called the character Pansy! And, although the book was published in 1936, she started writing it in 1926. Meaning that the negative connotation didn't exist yet - or, at least, it wasn't commonly used. I imagine editors, dealing primarily in language on a day-to-day basis, are more keyed into slang terms entering the vernacular. And it was her New York editor who encouraged the name change to Scarlett O'Hara!
As for the reason I don't like the name Pansy.... I first saw the name when I started reading Harry Potter almost twenty years ago (wow!). There's a very minor character named Pansy Parkinson. She's a Slytherin who hangs around Draco Malfoy and, although we rarely see her, whenever we do, she's absolutely horrible. I don't like flower names in general, but REALLY don't like Pansy because of her.
You might hear the phrase "Don't be such a pansy!" when one person is trying to coerce another into doing something s/he really doesn't want to do. It comes from the name being used as an insult, implying a man was homosexual or effeminate or "thought too much" (from the French connection) -- and was thus cowardly.
As mentioned here
http://www.newmainetimes.org/articles/2013/04/23/not-deferential-enough-pansy/
1929 was the year such a connotatuon "started."
Though I don't have a source for it (yet), I had an epiphany about Margaret Mitchell after reading that article. In Gone With The Wind, [Katie] Scarlett O'Hara is a survivor. She values "gumption" and is not afraid to do things others wouldn't do out of fear of offending social norms. Like a [P]ansy, she is strong and will come back from whatever setback she encounters.
Hence why Margaret Mitchell probably originally called the character Pansy! And, although the book was published in 1936, she started writing it in 1926. Meaning that the negative connotation didn't exist yet - or, at least, it wasn't commonly used. I imagine editors, dealing primarily in language on a day-to-day basis, are more keyed into slang terms entering the vernacular. And it was her New York editor who encouraged the name change to Scarlett O'Hara!
As for the reason I don't like the name Pansy.... I first saw the name when I started reading Harry Potter almost twenty years ago (wow!). There's a very minor character named Pansy Parkinson. She's a Slytherin who hangs around Draco Malfoy and, although we rarely see her, whenever we do, she's absolutely horrible. I don't like flower names in general, but REALLY don't like Pansy because of her.
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According to a biography of Margaret Mitchell that I read, in 1935, the year that "Gone With The Wind" was submitted for publication, the term "pansy" to mean a homosexual was current in the North but not (yet) in the South, so Mitchell was unaware of it. Because her New York publishers were in the North, they were aware of it, and that's why they informed her that the name had to be changed.
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I figured it was something like that, where the slang hadn't yet permeated to the South. I mean, even today there's a lag. And that's with television and the Internet! I can't even imagine what it was like almost 100 years ago.
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