quote:

Originally posted by Caterwauller:
Well - now I'm embarrassed by not only my ranking on the silly internet quiz but by my silly idea that posting it here would be fun. Sorry to offend!

Er... who exactly have you offended?

Oh - maybe no one. It's just a silly quiz, anyway.

Not me, CW! You go, bunny girl!

I think jo's hit the nail on the head about the 'are you a prude?' quizmaker assuming that if you're not an exhibitionist, you must be a prude. There are so many points on the scale between the two that it's ridiculous!

And some of the questions were odd. Taking the 'streaking on the NYC subway' as an example. I put 'no' to that, because a woman is in a precarious position in that kind of place anyway, without adding nudity into the bargain! Nothing to do with being a prude, just wanting to keep myself out of danger. (Plus I figured what kind of 'philanthropist' would add conditions to their giving? but maybe I'm being a little pedantic there!) I was almost bang in the middle with 55, by the way.

I think people use the word 'prude' too much, and as a way of shutting someone up - it's now not a very nice thing to be called, after all. It's an easy / lazy way to stop a debate without having to think about what the other person said, and is a tactic sadly used all too often.

Now this is interesting. The test that BH posted a link to showed me to be a cold dead fish. But I went to the original post by Kalleh and took the Queen Bee test. That one shows me to be completely uninhibited.

I think I know the difference. With the exception of the NY subway question, the questions on the Queen Bee test seemed to me to refer to private behavior, whilst those on the other quiz seemed to be excessively involved with group sex, public sex, etc.

So I'm a public prude and a private hoyden. Whoopee... Oh Honeeeeeee!!!

We had talked about the lack-of-reliability of these types of quizes back in 2003 when they were first posted. They are kind of fun, though!

CW, I can't imagine how you possibly could have offended anyone, unless you deleted the post.

Jo, I think you hit the nail on the head about my prudishness, too...public displays.

Bob, your description of the test just cracked me up! I swear, you should write comedies!

Dear CW, our favorite Wordcraft "bunny"...

You are not offensive to anyone... just a lot more relaxed and fun!
We love you. But I can't let you get near my husband... Ha!

Jo, is the word "whilst" in general use somewhere in the middens of north Iowa ?

I've been paying attention to the English language for a number of decades, and the only people (in my experience) who use that word are in or from the British Isles.

Damned if I know what they use here in the Middens. I truly hate this place. But that is a story for another day.

I don't remember when "whilst" became one of my favorite words. It must have been during my teen years, probably whilst reading one of the British novels with which I was so taken at that time. As far as I know I don't use it in oral speech, only in writing.

I suppose I should endeavor to attempt to try to eliminate it from my writing so as not to sound too affected.

I love "whilst!" I also love all of you for making me feel better about being a wild bunny! Hippity hoppity and all that! Thanks, everyone!

For what it's worth, it didn't offend me at all. Like lots of these tests it is amazingly shallow and of no real use but it is harmless fun.

My dictionary has the word 'prude' dating from 1704 as either a back-formation from 'prudefemme, or a later feminine form of 'prod' (the mind boggles!). The definition provided dates from 1709 and states: 'maintains or affects extreme propriety of speech and behaviour, especially in regard to the relations of the sexes'. These days, being a prude is seen as bad but clearly that is only a modern interpretation as there have certainly been times when such behaviour was expected and admired in women. For those of you who are sometimes called 'prude', you may want to take solace from the fact that my dictionary links the word with 'preux' which dates from 1771 and is defined as 'Brave, valiant, gallant'. Not too bad all things considered