Old Broad at the Beach

Every now and then I get an education on words and often with something I thought I clearly understood but find out other people clearly understood also only differently.

Growing up as I did in the 40s and 50s, I remember a lot of wonderful old movies where the word broad was used to refer to grown women pretty much of any age beyond youth. It was a slang term, but I had never understood it to be insulting. I suppose how it was used could turn it into an insult but that's so of most words, isn't it?

In the films, women even referred to themselves as broads. I don't think though I heard it in my home. I guess it was never the really classy or aristocratic ladies in the films but more earthy women, the kind who could stand shoulder to shoulder, and sometimes toe to toe, with their men, get down and dirty when required, and mostly were tough.

Although I hadn't called myself a broad, if someone had asked, I'd have said yes, I am. I didn't see it negative and maybe even flattering. I was aware however that others might it as lower class. Well so what! I come from working class, earthy roots.

When I got the idea of putting up a blog with a lot of photos of me from the beach, the title seemed it should incorporate the words-- old broad. I mean it's not like I am a chick or a bathing beauty on the beach but I do see myself as this strong earthy woman. A Woman on the Beach sounded too arty. Nope, it had to be old broad at the beach.

That is when I found out that not all saw the word as I had. My old dictionary simply defines broad (when it's a noun) as slang term for woman. But a man I know said it's a woman who dresses provocatively and has had several husbands. Say what! When I looked for more definitions of the word, sure enough some online did say exactly what the man had said.

I still saw it differently; so went looking for quotes referring to women as broads. Sometimes it's the context that changes the meaning of words. Through my search I found one blog with old broad as part of the title, learned the broad jump got changed to the long jump because of the derogatory way some saw the word broad, and read an an article where the writer talked of the old broads he admired and loved to interview-- Elizabeth Taylor being one of them.

Elizabeth Tayler: Dress provocatively-- check. Several husbands-- check. Although there is more to her than that and it's also the earthy side to Taylor, her deep ability to love, her ability to be one of the boys, her toughness, her passionate side that leads me to not see broad as derogatory when referring to her.

Am I a broad? Dress provocatively-- sometimes. Several husbands-- not yet.

When I asked Farm Boss what he thought of using this as a title, he suddenly got a yen for the movie Mamma Mia-- not because he remembered it referring to the leading women as old broads but because they were.

The following quotes are a few that I found:

"A lot of her is me. I've had this broad under my belt for five years. I own her - and nobody can tell me that I don't own her. I love every single dimension and component of her being. Her nobility, her flawed character, her laughter, her love of the absurd, her love of the unknown, her love of science... I've loved her great heart, her formidable spirit, her guts. She has a much better mind than mine, and a gifted imagination as well, but she's a little prickly, and certainly not without ego. She has this profound sense of humanity: she can talk to anybody and they listen." Kate Mulgrew

"I'm a tough old broad from Brooklyn. I intend to go on acting until I'm ninety and they won't need to paste my face with make-up." Barbara Stanwyck

"I'm too tall to be a girl, I never had enough dresses to be a lady, I wouldn't call myself a woman. I'd say I'm somewhere between a chick and a broad." Julia Roberts

"She was a great broad, in all the meaning of the word." (following the death of Barbara Stanwyck in 1990) Charlton Heston

"I'd have liked to have gone to bed with Jean Harlow. She was a beautiful broad. The fellow who married her was impotent and he killed himself. I would have done the same thing." Groucho Marx

Yes, old broad was the right title!