Sophisticated Cissy
June 21, 2013 5:33 AM
This morning I was talking to my wife about Lee Dorsey and the Meters, and we put on the tune "Cissy Strut." The Meters also have a tune called "Sophisticated Cissy." I was wondering - what does the word "cissy" mean to the Meters? Are they using it the same way i would use the word "sissy"? Or did it mean something different in 1969 than it does now?
According to this article, yes: "cissy" = "sissy".
During the 1960s, R&B vocalist and entertainer Willie West performed regularly across the Crescent City. He recalls the Sophisticated Sissy, as he heard it called, being “a dance that the gay guys started where you wave your arms around and switch your booty. I never did it, but saw it in the clubs. It caught on with the straight people. I don’t think the white people knew anything about it. It was mainly the black community imitating the way the gays switched and sashayed around.”
George Porter, Jr. and his wife, Ara laughed when they remembered seeing the dance during 1966 and 1967 at the Nite Cap club on the corner of Louisiana and Carondelet. At the time, the young George, his cousin, Zigaboo Modeliste, and Leo Nocentelli were the new rhythm section in Art Neville and the Neville Sounds, the band that would later become the Meters. While Porter confirmed West’s description of the dance, he wasn’t aware of the orientation of the dancers at the time. His wife Ara added that “everybody did it, gay and straight.”
posted by neroli at 5:50 AM on June 21, 2013
During the 1960s, R&B vocalist and entertainer Willie West performed regularly across the Crescent City. He recalls the Sophisticated Sissy, as he heard it called, being “a dance that the gay guys started where you wave your arms around and switch your booty. I never did it, but saw it in the clubs. It caught on with the straight people. I don’t think the white people knew anything about it. It was mainly the black community imitating the way the gays switched and sashayed around.”
George Porter, Jr. and his wife, Ara laughed when they remembered seeing the dance during 1966 and 1967 at the Nite Cap club on the corner of Louisiana and Carondelet. At the time, the young George, his cousin, Zigaboo Modeliste, and Leo Nocentelli were the new rhythm section in Art Neville and the Neville Sounds, the band that would later become the Meters. While Porter confirmed West’s description of the dance, he wasn’t aware of the orientation of the dancers at the time. His wife Ara added that “everybody did it, gay and straight.”
posted by neroli at 5:50 AM on June 21, 2013
I agree with the double entendre thing. Cissy is a diminutive for Cicily or Cecily. I also think that it was done so as not to offend gay people. If the called it "Sissy Strut", they were just calling names. Making it the "Cissy Strut" sort of backdoors the reference and, to my ear, implies that no offense in intended.
posted by gjc at 7:22 AM on June 21, 2013
posted by gjc at 7:22 AM on June 21, 2013
Homonym rather than double entendre? Similarly, in the 60s the word/name "Nancy" was a common term for effeminate men.
posted by epo at 7:38 AM on June 21, 2013
posted by epo at 7:38 AM on June 21, 2013
Time traveler from the 1960s here (straight but not narrow, then and now, if it matters to you). I just stepped out of the Time Tunnel on my way somewhen else to hip you to what was now -- then.
Are they using it the same way i would use the word "sissy"?
Yes.
did it mean something different in 1969 than it does now?
No.
Well, let me qualify those a bit.
Someone might call you a sissy for not fitting the shifting subjective societal norms for male behaviour, presentation, preferences, and activities. But it was not necessarily a synonymn for either 'gay' or 'homosexual' as we understand those terms today.
My own subjective memory of the time period would place 'sissy' as the least freighted with implications, least intended-to-insult term available on this scale:
sissy
fairy
homo
fag(got)
Again subjective: although 'gay' had been around a long time as an adjective, I don't think it was used as a noun until the 1970s.
As to the spelling, sissy is derived from sister, yeah. By the time this record was out, we'd been referring to my sister as Sissy/Cissy for fifteen years. Cissy is an Brrritish variant, also employed by Americans who wish to appear 'classy'. Like uncle and AAAhnt.
I also think that it [the alternate spelling] was done so as not to offend gay people.
No. Definitely not to avoid offending gay people. Maybe to avoid offending representatives of the establishment with the notion that gay people might exist.
Specifically, in this case, it may be like the winkingly oblique references to drugs and sex in rock songs in those days. Taking the alternate spelling may have been cheap insurance against the cowardice of radio station program directors. It offers plausible deniability.
Sneaking stuff past Miss Grundy was the game in popular culture in the 1960s.
So on one hand, sissy wasn't particularly strong language; on the other hand, the alternate spelling further muddied the waters for the nervous stewards of public morality and taste.
posted by Herodios at 10:01 AM on June 21, 2013
Are they using it the same way i would use the word "sissy"?
Yes.
did it mean something different in 1969 than it does now?
No.
Well, let me qualify those a bit.
Someone might call you a sissy for not fitting the shifting subjective societal norms for male behaviour, presentation, preferences, and activities. But it was not necessarily a synonymn for either 'gay' or 'homosexual' as we understand those terms today.
My own subjective memory of the time period would place 'sissy' as the least freighted with implications, least intended-to-insult term available on this scale:
sissy
fairy
homo
fag(got)
Again subjective: although 'gay' had been around a long time as an adjective, I don't think it was used as a noun until the 1970s.
As to the spelling, sissy is derived from sister, yeah. By the time this record was out, we'd been referring to my sister as Sissy/Cissy for fifteen years. Cissy is an Brrritish variant, also employed by Americans who wish to appear 'classy'. Like uncle and AAAhnt.
I also think that it [the alternate spelling] was done so as not to offend gay people.
No. Definitely not to avoid offending gay people. Maybe to avoid offending representatives of the establishment with the notion that gay people might exist.
Specifically, in this case, it may be like the winkingly oblique references to drugs and sex in rock songs in those days. Taking the alternate spelling may have been cheap insurance against the cowardice of radio station program directors. It offers plausible deniability.
Sneaking stuff past Miss Grundy was the game in popular culture in the 1960s.
So on one hand, sissy wasn't particularly strong language; on the other hand, the alternate spelling further muddied the waters for the nervous stewards of public morality and taste.
posted by Herodios at 10:01 AM on June 21, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by tyllwin at 5:48 AM on June 21, 2013