# Raquel Welch is still built like a brick shithouse. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 12, 2012, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520 "2012-03-12T02:24:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/21 "2012-03-12T06:08:04Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > A bit of literary trivia: Raquel Welch was Ayn Rand’s first choice to play Dagny Taggart in an \*Atlas Shrugged \*movie. She had the cheekbones. Wasn’t Farrah Fawcett a later option for Ayn? I could definitely see Raquel Welch, but FF? To the Ferguson link… whew… yeah… been a fan of hers as a wee child when I saw her in the docudrama One Million Years B.C. at the drive-in. One of my first celeb crushes- her and Dolly Parton. (I wasn’t sure exactly why at the time but I later figured it out.) Sampiro: Yes, yes, she does. Magnificently! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/22 "2012-03-12T07:46:17Z")
She is looking amazing. If someone told em I was built like a brick shithouse I’d be horribly offended. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/23 "2012-03-12T09:10:02Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Wasn’t Farrah Fawcett a later option for Ayn? I could definitely see Raquel Welch, but FF? Yes, but FF was later, in the 70s. And way too blonde. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/24 "2012-03-12T12:46:52Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > She’s still got a big bottom… ..that makes the rockin’ world go round. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/25 "2012-03-12T12:50:06Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > ‘Built like a brick shithouse’ means ‘well built’. The context of ‘well built’ is obvious when it comes to Raquel Welch. This. When I was in high school, saying a girl was “built” meant she had a fine rack. Anybody still know what a fine rack is? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/26 "2012-03-12T13:01:45Z")
As usual, [Cecil has settled the dispute](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2458/how-did-the-phrase-built-like-a-brick-shithouse-get-to-be-a-compliment): > [@](#): > > The guy who first used “built like a brick shithouse” to describe a woman with a nice figure wasn’t thickheaded, just a smart-ass. From the _Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang_ we learn that: (a) the phrase and its euphemistic variants date back at least to 1903; (b) said variants replace “shithouse” with switch shanty, schoolhouse, slaughterhouse, or backhouse, among others; and (c) all were originally–and more sensibly–applied to men of solid or powerful build. When said of women, one 1938 source notes, the phrase usually meant a “heavy, cloddish, sexually unappetizing female.” **But even in the 1930s a few wiseguys were applying it to attractive women, and in the U.S. that usage has now supplanted all others.** ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/27 "2012-03-12T14:03:34Z")
Her hands and neck look really good for 71. I have no clue, but I assume these are two areas that are difficult to diguise/cosmetically alter? Actually, make that unbelievably good. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/28 "2012-03-12T16:04:56Z")
A shithouse made of brick is also built to last, which is especially appropriate given the subject of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/29 "2012-03-12T16:24:15Z")
A woman built like a shit brickhouse is not the same size from the shoulders down nor necessarily a bruiser. Think Jennifer Lopez or Kim Kardashian. Those two are built like brick shithouses. [36"-24"-36" aw, what a winning hand!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBx6mAWYPU) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/30 "2012-03-12T16:36:36Z")
I assume that the brickwork has been repointed. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/31 "2012-03-12T16:49:30Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > A woman built like a shit brickhouse is not the same size from the shoulders down nor necessarily a bruiser. Think Jennifer Lopez or Kim Kardashian. Those two are built like brick shithouses. > > [36"-24"-36" aw, what a winning hand!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBx6mAWYPU) Gah! Too late for edit. I should have added “but only if she’s 5’3"”. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/32 "2012-03-12T18:10:37Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I assume that the brickwork has been repointed. Looking at her neck in HD, it doesn’t look like that area has had any work done. If she was going to go under the knife, wouldn’t she had had that done? ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/33 "2012-03-12T18:33:08Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Wasn’t Farrah Fawcett a later option for Ayn? I could definitely see Raquel Welch, but FF? Now if we just had a movie where Raquel Welch gets a see-through nightie wearing Farrah Fawcett into bed and tries to seduce her. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/34 "2012-03-12T20:57:40Z")
But she doesn’t swing her arms when she walks ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/35 "2012-03-12T22:10:16Z")
I saw the CSI: Miami promo last night and posted on Facebook “Does Raquel Welch have very talented genes or very talented surgeons?” The consensus seems to be “A lot of the former and a bit of the latter.” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/36 "2012-03-13T10:55:54Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Looking at her neck in HD, it doesn’t look like that area has had any work done. If she was going to go under the knife, wouldn’t she had had that done? I would have to examine her up close to comment further. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/37 "2012-03-13T12:28:29Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I would have to examine her up close to comment further. 😃 Yes, an up close, hands-on examination, surely. For the greater benefit, y’know, so it helps us figure out what it takes to still bring it 50 years later. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/38 "2012-03-13T16:17:28Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I’d still like to have her dropped on top of me. When I was a freshman in college I had the 1,000,000 Years BC poster taped to my ceiling exactly for this reason. She always missed, however. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520/39 "2012-03-13T16:40:56Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > But she doesn’t swing her arms when she walks Her lack of arm movement is actually only a problem when she dances. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raquel-welch-is-still-built-like-a-brick-shithouse/615520.md?page=1)