'Wasp'
What did Vincent's character mean when he referred to his sons girlfriend as a 'wasp'? I have never heard the term used for a woman before.
shareI haven't seen the movie yet, but I would bet he's calling her a White Angelo Saxon Protestant.
From Wiki: White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, commonly abbreviated to the acronym WASP, is a sociological and cultural exonym that originated in the United States and Canada and is used to refer to Americans of British descent.
No doubt thats what he meant. Thanks for the answer.
shareThat's part of it, but I first started hearing it back in the late 60's when the country was so divided about the Vietnam war. A WASP was someone who was a staunch Republican, supportive of the war effort - definitely NOT a Kennedy or
any other white Celtic or Italian Roman Catholic. Another pair of words used a lot back then - "Hawks" and "Doves." That's one of my favorite things about this message board - sometimes it brings a little of my own history back to me.
Note the P in WASP which would exclude Kennedy and persons from the Catholic faith. WASP was not considered always considered a pejorative term. Most of the "Boston Brahmins" were WASPs with names like Cabot, Lodge, Adams. The Bush family comes from this stock.
shareShe certainly wasn't a "B".
Let it be unsaid: insignificance is the locus of true increpation.
Fine bringing back a little bit of history, but given the lack of character breakdown and depth in terms of her political leanings I think it's pretty safe to say the literal meaning was the intended one in the film. Whatsmore the majority of characters surrounding Mike mustn't have been true non-WASPS according to your definition anyway, as they all seemed pretty supportive of Nicky's service to the country.
I almost came as a Shark actually, but then I realised that an Eagle was slightly better.