Purex

“I used to be Snow White, but then I drifted.” – Mae West What’s so funny about this? Mae West was the famous Hollywood actress in the early 20th century who, I believe, acted in both silent and talking movies. She was also famous for being extremely clever and witty and risqué in her comments and behavior. She has many famous quotations and this is one of them. I’m featuring it today because, to tell the truth, I just read it for the first time the other day and I loved it. The color white is interesting because in the West it represents purity and that’s why brides always dress in white, since they are supposedly virgins. In contrast, in the East, white represents death and brides traditionally dress in red, certainly a more vibrant color. But since this is a western blog and English is a part of western culture let’s talk about Snow White. First of all snow is certainly white, very white, and when it falls from the skies, it’s very pure. But note that Snow White is also a proper name, hence the capitalization. She’s a fairy tale character popularized by the Walt Disney movie. The implication is that Snow White is pure; she’s a virgin. You can actually call people Snow White literally or sarcastically. What Mae West hilariously does is refer to herself as previously being Snow White, that is, once, a long time ago, she was a virgin. But she adds a brilliant bit of word play when she says she drifted. When snow gets moved around by the wind we call it drifting or snow drift. But drifting can refer to any slow change over time such as sand dunes, or stock market prices, or in Mae West’s case a change from being a virgin to no longer being a virgin. Must have been a wind storm. And THAT’s what’s so funny! #joke #pun #ESL #ELT #ELL #ELD #ESOL #EFL #TESOL #TESL #Englishlanguage #English #language #learnenglish #twinglish #wordplay #snowwhite #maewest