Q&A

Question: Would a male Supreme Court nominee be described as "brassy" in a headline by a major news outlet?

Answer: No. Because "brassy" means impudently, shamelessly, insolently, brazenly bold, and thus it is a gendered term, reserved almost exclusively in its use to describe women.

Men are just bold. Women, on the other hand, are brassy, bold in defiance of the expectation that they will not be.

If it's a compliment, it's a backhanded one.

[H/T to Shaker koach.]

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