What is a WASP?

[geminibear]

White Anglo Saxon Protestant

 

Sometimes for shits and grins I like to bring some of the conversations from the forum into my workplace. The more subtle and appropriate ones. Sort of my own litmus test on reality. Both ways.

 

I have read numerous threads where the term WASP is used. I interpret the term used mainly in sarcasm or mockery, which gives me a perverse chuckle. I grew up hearing the term used often by my Roman Catholic Italian grandparents. Usually describing how they were treated growing up during the Great Depression. (Think Walton's Mountain with more children, louder, more drama, statues of saints and holy candles and other stereotypes).

 

But when I covertly inserted WASP into the conversation in the break room at the office today nobody knew what I was talking about, other than the insect type of wasp. Mind you it is not uncommon for others at work to not know what I am talking about.

 

The office has a staff of 8 ranging from 56 to 28 with most being in their 30's somewhere. 2 females and 6 males.

 

My question is have we as a society migrated away from that thinking? Is it generational? Or am I just a troglodyte?

[+ Truereview]

Clarifying question on your breakroom audience: were they all WASPs?

[RM]

Maybe they'd understand if you said it in all caps. I don't remember the last time I heard anyone say WASP.

[+ azdr0710]

I've used the term and many don't know what it means......

 

traditionally, it means some combo of old money, conservative, non-flashy, frugal, a bit set in your ways, suspicion of non-WASPs, and desire to not draw attention to yourself (sometimes because of nefarious actions)

 

an old story I heard is, rather than complaining to management about some service issue at a restaurant or similar, WASPs will simply say nothing and never return....

 

an old saying, "never complain, never explain" was coined in the late 1800s reportedly referring to the new industrialists (some being WASPs) who didn't want to draw attention to their ill-earned millions

 

(full disclosure!!....by definition, I was raised a WASP, but don't observe the "P" part anymore)

[geminibear]

Clarifying question on your breakroom audience: were they all WASPs?

I would guesstimate 3 are .....without crossing any HR lines.

[+ bashful]

I'm shocked they didn't understand WASP. Maybe because I'm older. Hopefully, it's a reflection that people are less inclined to label others, but the realist in me knows that's not true. (btw, I had to Google troglodyte.)

[Kuriousity]

Jeb Bush=White Anglo Saxon Protestant (Yes, I know he's Catholic NOW)

 

Donald Trump=White Trash

 

NOT POLITICAL---just a personality observation...so no one get your thong in a bunch.

[+ purplekow]

White Anglo Saxon Protestant

 

Sometimes for shits and grins I like to bring some of the conversations from the forum into my workplace. The more subtle and appropriate ones. Sort of my own litmus test on reality. Both ways.

 

I have read numerous threads where the term WASP is used. I interpret the term used mainly in sarcasm or mockery, which gives me a perverse chuckle. I grew up hearing the term used often by my Roman Catholic Italian grandparents. Usually describing how they were treated growing up during the Great Depression. (Think Walton's Mountain with more children, louder, more drama, statues of saints and holy candles and other stereotypes).

 

But when I covertly inserted WASP into the conversation in the break room at the office today nobody knew what I was talking about, other than the insect type of wasp. Mind you it is not uncommon for others at work to not know what I am talking about.

 

The office has a staff of 8 ranging from 56 to 28 with most being in their 30's somewhere. 2 females and 6 males.

 

My question is have we as a society migrated away from that thinking? Is it generational? Or am I just a troglodyte?

WASP is probably not used much any more. I think Wop and Dago have the same Q score. I have heard WASPy used as an adjective, mostly in a demeaning way.

[+ Charlie]

The literal meaning is White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, but the connotation is Establishment/socially privileged. After all, the hillbillies of Appalachia are technically WASPs, and the Kennedys technically are not. I think the disconnect between the literal and implied meanings is what has caused the term to lapse from popular discourse, except as an occasional pejorative for someone who has unearned advantages. (Full disclosure: I am technically a WASP)

[+ deej]

(Full disclosure: I am technically a WASP)

 

I am too.

 

I am white. I probably meet the requirement of being Anglo-Saxon -- the family tree supports it near as we can tell. My family claims at least a glancing swipe at being protestant although none of us are actual practitioners.

 

Is there a "maybe WASP" category?

[+ Gar1eth]

I'm shocked they didn't understand WASP. Maybe because I'm older. Hopefully, it's a reflection that people are less inclined to label others, but the realist in me knows that's not true. (btw, I had to Google troglodyte.)

 

 

I too am shocked. (But I didn't have to Google troglodyte:p).

 

I am frequently shocked by what people don't know. In college there was a fellow 1st year German student (but who had had some German in high school). She was lousy at German but at the time was thinking of possibly majoring in it. Our Swiss TA mentioned William Tell. Miss thinking of majoring in German said, "Oh, I think I've heard of him." Now maybe that's a bit unfair. When I was a child we had a set of children's storybooks. And one of the stories was of William Tell. So maybe I wouldn't have known except for that. But I would have thought it was common knowledge. There were cartoons of it for gosh sakes.

 

Other things-I've been surprised at how many people have never heard the Stone Soup Story or the Why The Sea Is Salty Story (it involves a magic saltcellar-but I don't want to ruin the story for those who might want to read it. So I'll stop there.)

 

Or just the other day, I was out shopping. A woman clerk of a certain age asked me if I'd like a package of pomegranate seeds. I said no because I didn't want to be trapped in Hades. She had no idea what I was talking about.

 

All of this lack of what I thought was part of our common heritage makes me scratch my (bald) head and scream to the sky-as I'm sure all of you do too-"O TEMPORA!!! O MORES!" There, I've said it. And I feel so much better now.

 

Gman

[Despardo]

WASP--someone who has to step out of the shower to take a piss.

[Despardo]

The literal meaning is White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, but the connotation is Establishment/socially privileged. After all, the hillbillies of Appalachia are technically WASPs, and the Kennedys technically are not. I think the disconnect between the literal and implied meanings is what has caused the term to lapse from popular discourse, except as an occasional pejorative for someone who has unearned advantages. (Full disclosure: I am technically a WASP)

It used to be one needed to be a WASP to join a country club--probably still true in places. Poor white folk were always beneath consideration anyway, even if they fit the definition. To be a WASP meant you were decidedly not "ethnic" in any way, while a certain social/economic status was implied as well. Essentially it meant, not a Black, not an Hispanic, not a Jew, not a Catholic, not Italian, not Irish, but certainly not "white trash" either. By the 1970s, being a WASP sometimes meant that you were the "other" if you were trying to ingratiate yourself into an ethnic community you considered to be cool.

[+ Keith30309]

Cultural homogenization resultant of media-social, mass and otherwise.

[+ Truereview]

Clarifying question on your breakroom audience: were they all WASPs?

 

I would guesstimate 3 are .....without crossing any HR lines.

In my own experience, most WASPs used to go about their lives blissfully ignoring or not having to know the term. That is part of the privilege of being a member of an "in" group in America. That's changing. I'm keenly aware, and have been all my life, that I am not a WASP. I, along with a growing educated majority minority, tend to know the term and we use it technically or pejoratively. My knee-jerk reaction was too assume gem's audience was all WASP, but it looks like I was wrong. This means that to know the reason why gem's break room buddies don't know the word, we would have to get to know them as individuals & find out the circumstance. How horrifying! Stereotyping and labels make our life so much easier!

 

Now, @geminibear, a more germane issue: you are obviously not a troglodyte, if anything, you are an amateur social psychologist who likes experimenting on your own office mates. First, dogs in the workplace, and now, forum fodder testing on live working subjects? You love mind games, eh? Makes me wonder what experiments you might be conducting on us here in the forum?!

[geminibear]

WASP--someone who has to step out of the shower to take a piss.

You win! That was the best answer. I laughed so hard I spit my morning coffee out.

[+ Gar1eth]

WASP--someone who has to step out of the shower to take a piss.

 

Hunh:confused:?

 

Gman

[geminibear]

Now, @geminibear, a more germane issue: you are obviously not a troglodyte, if anything, you are an amateur social psychologist who likes experimenting on your own office mates. First, dogs in the workplace, and now, forum fodder testing on live working subjects? You love mind games, eh? Makes me wonder what experiments you might be conducting on us here in the forum?!

Oh TR don't let that vivid imagination run away with you.

 

Nothing to see here, move along folks, move along.

[gallahadesquire]

Examples:

• Thurston Howell III on Gilligan's Island.
   
  
• Anyone who belongs to the West Chop Club (Northern tip of Martha's Vineyard)
  
• Most of the Residents of Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard
  

My home town of River Forest, Illinois, had a Tennis Club that had been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was jokingly said that one of the requirements for membership was across the street, at the First Presbyterian Church of River Forest.

[marylander1940]

White Anglo Saxon Protestant

 

Sometimes for shits and grins I like to bring some of the conversations from the forum into my workplace. The more subtle and appropriate ones. Sort of my own litmus test on reality. Both ways.

 

I have read numerous threads where the term WASP is used. I interpret the term used mainly in sarcasm or mockery, which gives me a perverse chuckle. I grew up hearing the term used often by my Roman Catholic Italian grandparents. Usually describing how they were treated growing up during the Great Depression. (Think Walton's Mountain with more children, louder, more drama, statues of saints and holy candles and other stereotypes).

 

But when I covertly inserted WASP into the conversation in the break room at the office today nobody knew what I was talking about, other than the insect type of wasp. Mind you it is not uncommon for others at work to not know what I am talking about.

 

The office has a staff of 8 ranging from 56 to 28 with most being in their 30's somewhere. 2 females and 6 males.

 

My question is have we as a society migrated away from that thinking? Is it generational? Or am I just a troglodyte?

 

I was born in 1940, at that time WASP meant something like the original Americans, the only ones who could called themselves 100% Americans and weren't in suspicion of allegiance to another religion, speaking a different language or eating weird things at home.

 

you can just say White, so they can understand it, but it wasn't that way just in the 70's when Nixon talked about: whites, negroes, Italians and Jews living in harmony.

 

One more thing, there's a lot of folks out there who wish the country was like a 1940's movie were there's 1 Italian-American, one Jew, one Polish-American, a couple of Irish-American and 7 Americans (WASP). That's no longer the case.

[Kenny]

I think WASP has become a cultural term more than an ethnic one, which it used to be in the last century. In that regard, Condi Rice is as much a WASP as HW Bush. And I say that as an old-fashioned WASP.

[marylander1940]

I think WASP has become a cultural term more than an ethnic one, which it used to be in the last century. In that regard, Condi Rice is as much a WASP as HW Bush. And I say that as an old-fashioned WASP.

 

Do you mean a WASP also has to be conservative? You do have a point but I don't think Condi or Powell could call themselves that way.

WASP is someone who is white as in Northern European with no Mediterranean, Irish or Jewish ancestry but they might be open to Catholics now like William F. Buckley.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley,_Jr.

 

One more thing: in the 80's if you were considered mixed background if one of your parents was Irish, Italian, Polish or Jew, and the other one wasn't. I'm not even mention if one your parents was Hispanic, Asian, Hindu or black...

[+ Charlie]

but they might be open to Catholics now like William F. Buckley.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley,_Jr.

Horrors! How appalling.

[MikeyGMin]

I know it used to mean so much more, but the only time I think about it (having just recently used it in a post) is when it comes to attitudes (mostly discomfort) in dealing with money. My family always had a pot to pee in but nary a window to throw it out. No money in my line, but I was still raised with an attitude that discussing it needed to be kept to a minimum. Never flaunt what you have or denigrate what others do not.

 

In this regard, it's just sort of short hand for being culturally indoctrinated, because you don't need to be white, Anglo Saxon or Protestant to be uncomfortable dealing with money.

 

Side note: I recently bought a new car. I took my Persian friend with me to close the deal. He was amazing!!!

[Kenny]

Do you mean a WASP also has to be conservative? You do have a point but I don't think Condi or Powell could call themselves that way.

WASP is someone who is white as in Northern European with no Mediterranean, Irish or Jewish ancestry but they might be open to Catholics now like William F. Buckley.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley,_Jr.

 

One more thing: in the 80's if you were considered mixed background if one of your parents was Irish, Italian, Polish or Jew, and the other one wasn't. I'm not even mention if one your parents was Hispanic, Asian, Hindu or black...

Mostly I mean it's an attitude more than a bloodline with religious overtones. (Condi's got it, the Dumpster doesn't.)