I've been looking at this word for a couple of nights now and nothing better is coming to me. My girlfriend came up with a French word that couldn't really be translated, but sort of amounted to "holier than thou", which is not exactly what I'm looking for. Can't find the right way to google for it either, so I'm gonna have to ask for your assistance again. Here's the situation. My MC is a girl who is considered sweet. The good girl. Through a series of events at work she comes under fire from her boss and in the heated arguement that follows he finally says, "You fckn little... prom queen." He says that because I'm having a hell of a time trying to come up with a better way to vent his frustration with her. And that's why I need to ask a human. I can barely formulate a proper way to ask what I'm looking for, let alone do it in such a way that a search engine understands it. This man is very angry with her. Lawsuits from publishers and police pending angry. Makes his frustrations with her personal by attacking her on her sweetness, good girl... ness, her seeming innocense. You catch my drift, I'm sure. What does he call her, if not -oh, please not- prom queen?
@Homer Potvin Nope. She's not fake. She actually is a good girl. The whole problem she's having in the above situation isn't even her fault. She's just getting the blame for it. The guy is just so frustrated that he attacks her personally on the most obvious thing about her. Like if I had an argument with Nelson over there. If I wanted to go personal, I'd call him fat. Or a sandwich eating idiot. @Cdn Writer Hm. Barbie. Maybe. You're thinking she's a blonde, I'm guessing. Fair enough, I suppose, given the information available. But I've got a thing for redheads, so... Still, her hair shouldn't factor into it. Point is that through the story I'm using her desire to become a more badass girl to completely ruin her life, so the insult her boss throws her way should emphasise the damn good girl part.
Thanks! I've had about a dozen Nelson avatars over the years... didn't think I would like this one, but it's been growing on me. Hmm... maybe a "girl scout?" Or a "goody two-shoes?"
Urban dictionary suggests: Prom bitch Prom Queen Reject It's a great website. Play around with it, there may be some ideas there. BTW, "Barbie" is defined as a "plastic whore" sounds like an insult to me. In your story, does the fellow yelling at the girl know the slang that teens use?
You could go the random route and have him call her an Ophelia. She was just living her life till Hamlet lost his shit. On those lines, a Desdemona. Othello killed her for no reason other than his own misunderstanding. But if you don't want to go that far into it, I'd agree with Girl Scout or if she's uncovered something, Nancy Drew. Meddling woman.
Is she actually a goody two shoes, or is she a fake? If she really is good to a sickening degree, the insult you're looking for is Pollyanna.
I even have the app. Started when I got really curious about "Japanese Rain Goggles". I refer to it every now and then though. Barbie as in "plastic bitch" is not what I'm looking for, but Barbie as in "wholesome toy for girls" could be on the shortlist. Thank you for the vote of confidence, but I think it's safe to say including Shakespearian references in my story would be like making an eight year old listen to Pink Floyd. Might I ask you to elaborate? She's not a horrible goody two-shoes, by the way. She's just the kind of girl that will talk to you in the grocery line, even if you smell a little. She's attractive, if she's your type. The kind of girl that makes you say, "Oh yeah, she's nice." when a friend says she saw her last week. You just like her, until you wrongly assume she drove your succesful TV Show into litigation hell.
A Pollyanna is a girl who's so good and innocent that she makes people sick. This wouldn't have to be true for everyone she knows, of course, but it would be a good insult coming from someone who's pissed off at her.
Whether she's a good girl or not, it depends how the person who's insulting her perceives her. Maybe HE thinks she's fake.
I think (and I'm just pantsing here) that a 'Pollyanna' is also overly-optimistic. They don't like troubleshooting, because, you know, there won't ever be any trouble. They always try to put a good spin on whatever happens. It's not so much that the person is 'good,' it's that they want to see the good in everybody else.
“You whiny little savage!” - she doesn’t have to be “whiny” or even a “savage” for him to say these things if his intention is to attack or insult her. He could still call her something she most definitely isn’t to taint her heart. He could call her “an ugly little wretch” even if she’s not ugly or a wretch. Other words “miss perfect”, “goody goody”, “think you’re Jesus?” “think you’re Cinderella?” Fun fact: the male counter to a Mary Sue is a Gary Stu but the idiom doesn’t seem to be used as often.
Princess is one I tried before sort of settling on Prom Queen, actually. Cinderella's briefly been on the list as well. I think I'm going with 'girl scout', which feels the most like what I'm looking for right now. It doesn't help I can't really properly convey what I'm looking for it seems. Maybe I'll have learned more words by the time I come by it in the seventh draft.
