Is it just me or is that a very sexually suggestive phrase? I’m surprised that it isn’t listed in sexual harrassment policy books across the country. I’m shocked that it is used in casual and even professional conversations.
A “slip” is a woman’s undergarment just like bras and panties. Undergarments cover private parts, therefore mentioning that someone’s slip is showing is an inappropriate way of saying that someone is revealing their true feelings.
Whenever someone tells me that I get slightly offended, or turned on, depending on who said it.
At the beginning I was going to tell you it would be no different then telling someone her shirt/sweater had fallen off her shoulder and her bra strap was showing. If telling her that is sexual harassment, then she should be written up for inappropriate attire.
But you clearly have a very different meaning for ‘you’re slip is showing’ then I do.
Also, to add, what’s wrong with telling someone they’re showing their true feelings or maybe talking a little more then they should and in what world what be sexual harassment? Is it sexual harassment if I tell you that I think you have your undies in a bundle over nothing.
The word “slip” has multiple meanings. One of them is “a mistake” (derived from another meaning of slip, which is to lose your footing.) I have not heard “your slip is showing” to mean that you have revealed your true feelings, but if I did hear it in that context, I would take it to refer to “a slip of the tongue,” or a mistake, not to an undergarment. Women don’t even wear slips these days (try finding one in a department store), and anyway, it is O.K. to refer to a woman’s underwear without harassing her, unless you’re doing it in a particularly salacious way.
I think the OP’s point is that you’re using a sexual metaphor for a non-sexual situation. If somebody’s slip is literally showing, there’s no problem with you pointing that out. Nor do I think the OP has any problem with people expressing by some other phrase the idea that you’re revealing something that should remain concealed.
I haven’t either. I don’t even know any younger women that wear slips. The only situation I can imagine this coming up is at something like a wedding where ancient Aunt Beatrice literally has underwear sticking out and needs to be informed of it before she figures it out herself and gets the vapors.
My daughters tell all the time that my underwear (boxers) are showing when I bend over. They are correct and there is no harassment involved.
I suppose that use of this expression should be slightly discouraged or encouraged then.
Also, we need to be covering up table legs. They are absolutely obscenely suggestive, and bound to either discourage or encourage rape … or at least impure thoughts, which comes to much the same thing at the end of the day.
*From a church bulletin in a small South Carolina town: “There will be a regular monthly Deacon’s Meeting next Sunday morning. It will be gin with breakfast at 7:30 a.m.” *
The following correction appeared in a small town paper:
“Our paper carried the notice last week that Mr. Jones is a defective in the police force. This was a typographical error. Mr. Jones is really a detective n the police farce.”
