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The idiom put hair(s) on someone's chest means:

Fig. to do or take something to invigorate or energize someone, always a male, except in jest: Here, have a drink of this stuff! It'll put hair on your chest. That stuff is powerful. It will really put hair on your chest.

[McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002]

I have known this idiom for a while and as the above dictionary indicates, I always believed this idiom could be used only for males or boys.

According to BBC Learning English broadcast on Dec. 15, 2015, it says it could be used for women as follows:

Feifei: Well, last night I was in the pub with some friends, it was getting late and they were starting to drink shots of liquor; one of my friends was encouraging me to give it go and he said “Drink it, it’ll put hairs on your chest!” What did he mean? Why would liquor put hairs on my chest? I do not want hairs on my chest!

Rob: Haha, I’m sure you don’t but that’s very funny, Feifei. ‘It’ll put hairs on your chest’ in that context means it’s good for you, it’ll make you a strong man or a woman!

Feifei: To have hairs on my chest means I’m a strong person? What a strange expression!

  1. Can this expression be used to women? I would really like to get some input/answers from female members of this community on whether it would be considered offensive even if it is used in jest.

  2. What is etymology of this expression? The linked Ngram Viewer shows that the expression started around 1915.

tchrist
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    It can be used with respect to men, women and children. – Baz Dec 27 '15 at 18:03
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    Yes, it can be used when speaking to a woman, but do so with caution. It's not specifically offensive, nor is it necessarily sexually suggestive. Women though, may have a different reaction to the phrase than men. — I agree with you that it will be helpful to see some responses to your question from women. I suspect some will receive it quite differently than others. – ElmerCat Dec 27 '15 at 18:15
  • @ElmerCat Thanks for your comment. That's what this community is for I think. –  Dec 27 '15 at 18:19
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    I would not suggest saying this to a woman unless you know her well enough that she will take it with good nature. Some women might, eg, take it as an accusation of being lesbian or trans. – Hot Licks Dec 27 '15 at 19:52
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    since it is akin to "man up", current rules of behavior recommend against proferring any such sexist remarks, regardless of whether the object's and/or audience's gender. – tony gil Dec 27 '15 at 23:52
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    Pertinent to your question, but awkward to edit into my answer at this point: "The best extant definition of a gentleman is a man who never gives offence unintentionally" – ab2 Dec 28 '15 at 00:41
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    @tonygil Neither of these phrases have anything to do with sexism; they're more to do with puberty. – Schilcote Dec 28 '15 at 01:55
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    @Schilcote anything gender related which determines as desirable something which only one gender (male) can achieve, is SEXIST. "man up", "hair on chest", "have the balls", "the right man for the job", "you guys" - all sexist and by contemporary convention should be banned/avoided. – tony gil Dec 28 '15 at 12:15
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    @tonygil: "You guys" is gender-neutral in most contexts, so your call to ban and avoid is misleading. – Entbark Dec 28 '15 at 16:17
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    @tonygil You might want to read this question, Is “guy” gender-neutral?. The issue was discussed in this community. –  Dec 28 '15 at 18:48
  • merriam webster defines 3a guy as "man" and alternatively "person, gender-neutral". common use is widespread as "man". "boy" means young man, but you dont call an african-american "boy" because it was ALSO used in derrogatory manner for a long time to refer to African Americans. simple rule: if it MIGHT offfend, dont use it. – tony gil Dec 29 '15 at 14:06
  • @tonygil The user who commented to you that "you guys" is gender-neutral in most contexts seems to be a native speaker. Many of those who posted the answers to the question seem to be native speakers. I will never bow down to you. You don't watch TV shows and movies? –  Dec 29 '15 at 14:09
  • @Rathony YOU are not a native speaker, your words, not mine. YOU seem to ignore cultural context. YOU certainly are not concerned with issues of gender-equality. in your country/culture, beating up women is probably justified, if not outright permitted. – tony gil Dec 30 '15 at 10:22
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    @tonygil Are you from the 19th century? I am done talking to you. . –  Dec 30 '15 at 10:28
  • @Rathony i am from the 21st, bigots and sexists are from the 19th century. please stay quiet in the future. – tony gil Jan 02 '16 at 12:58
  • What do you call someone who tells you to bow down and stay quiet in the future? –  Jan 02 '16 at 13:13
  • @Rathony From one guy (female) to another: thanks for the green check. Guy has become gender neutral among anyone under, say, 80. – ab2 Jan 02 '16 at 16:52
  • @ab2 I think tony gil is the one you need to convince. :-) –  Jan 02 '16 at 16:54
  • @tonygil On the guy issue: As a female native English speaker (who retained her "maiden name" when it was unheard of to do so), I find guy gender neutral, as does everyone I know, including my tennis friends. On a recent trip to Colorado "You guys" was the universal form of address of waiters and waitresses. If I had been offended, I would have starved to death. What I would find offensive is "gal". But no one in their right mind would call me a gal. For some time now, "gals" have blue hair, sit together in the back seat of the car (the "menfolk" are in the front) and they totter. – ab2 Jan 02 '16 at 17:06
  • @ab2 Thanks. I can sleep peacefully today thanks to your comment. :-) –  Jan 02 '16 at 17:08
  • @ab2 im glad you dont take offense, you might not even mind being called "man" (as in "hey, man") or "dude". i dont risk it. if there is a chance that someone might be offended (even if that person represents a small percentile of a minority), i choose a term that is guaranteed to be gender-neutral. i use "she" for undetermined gender, for example. maybe thats just because my mom burned bras back in the day, maybe because i've got africanamerican, nativeamerican and latino blood and am oversensitive. – tony gil Jan 03 '16 at 11:15
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    @tony gil You have good reasons! It is tricky to know what to say in this transition period. In several generations, it will be all sorted out -- but maybe then the issue will be what we call people who live on Mars and have started to diverge into a separate species. – ab2 Jan 03 '16 at 16:09

4 Answers4

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The answer to Part 1 of your question is It depends

It depends on:

  • The age of the woman to whom you are speaking (don't, if she is over 25)

    Your age relative to her age (should be about the same, and it is OK if you are obviously senile)

    The sense of humor of the woman (it should be earthy and robust)

    How much you care about your relationship with the woman (if you care, be careful)

    Whether there are other people around (If she feels she has to fake being a good sport, you are dead)

Never say anything like that if you are in a position to influence her career.

There is nothing to be gained by such a remark, and much to be lost. It is not a mere extension of addressing a group of men and women as "you guys".

Think of the reverse: How would it strike you if a woman told a chubby man that he should wear a bra? (Not an exact analogy, but close enough.)

ab2
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  • "If she feels she has to fake being a good sport, you are dead" what does this mean? – Zaibis Dec 28 '15 at 12:26
  • @Zaibis It means she will be really, really annoyed with you and will write you off as a creep. – ab2 Dec 28 '15 at 13:55
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The movie "Willow" had Val Kilmer use this expression in reference to the young princess. So in short yes it can be used as in there is no codified prohibition against it. You can also use it literally, for example a woman about to begin gender reassignment, the doctor could tell her the hormone therapy will put hair on her chest. As an aside I think to use the plural "hairs" is uncessary as "hair" is a mass noun.

Tom B
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    She's a princess and the last thing she needs is a hairy chest! – User1000547 Dec 28 '15 at 14:45
  • 'Hairs' has a slightly different meaning from 'hair', here. Hairs has the sense there was no hair there previously. It also rolls off the tongue better - 'hairzonyourchest!' Hair has the sense somewhat, that there was some hair, or a body of hair on your chest, already, but that this adds more. Which is not so funny. This phrase is funniest when there were no hairs previously, as it's a contrast - especially if said to a woman - who presumably, wouldn't want them there anyway! – Jelila Jan 18 '18 at 04:09
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I think it means it will give me the feeling of discomfort and unfamiliarity and the momentary delusion of feeling like a full-grown chest-beating growling man, and I would be able to strut my feathers like a peacock, the stuff being in lieu of having actual feathers on your chest. And be the focus of envy for weeks to come. Regardless if you actually wished for hair on your chest.

Like the Camel or Marlborough advertised feeling.

Blessed Geek
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  • This doesn't answer either part of the question. – Matt E. Эллен Dec 28 '15 at 00:06
  • It answers part #1 of the question. – Blessed Geek Dec 28 '15 at 01:43
  • Your answer does not cover anything to do with offensiveness. – Matt E. Эллен Dec 28 '15 at 18:41
  • Do I have to be explicit in saying whether I am offended? I am an autistic girl. "Offended" is a very vague term. Everyone has their own definition of "offended". "Offended" is a spatial continuum. I simply expressed precisely how I feel - you have to fit this set of precise feelings into your frame of reference for the definition of "offended". I do not have the capacity to understand "offended". – Blessed Geek Dec 29 '15 at 03:31
  • You do not have to say whether you are offended. What is asked is to state whether women would find it offensive and why. – Matt E. Эллен Dec 29 '15 at 13:45
  • @Matt E. Эллен Blessed Geek answered Part 1 of the question. She told us how it would make her feel. I answered Part 1 of the question, telling users how it would make many women that I know feel. I started off my answer "It depends.." and clearly I did not include all the factors -- I left out BG's point of view. Well, I never pretended to include all women, and BG added a valuable point of view, as the OP asked for. BG said she would feel discomfort and unfamiliarity and would end up feeling like a peacock strutting her feathers. Surely this tells us all where – ab2 Dec 29 '15 at 14:34
  • @Matt E. Эллен on the offensive scale she feels...not very offended, and able to creatively turn it to her advantage. Telling us how she feels is telling us that all women don't feel the same -- about anything. – ab2 Dec 29 '15 at 14:34
  • This also happens to be one of the most accurate explanations of the phrase as intended. – The Nate Dec 31 '15 at 04:43
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I've always thought this phrase was intended for children, or perhaps a young adult who is effectively being called a child. The implication being that men are hairy. By the way, it's not necessarily a safe assumption. My father had some chest hair, but not a whole lot. As a 38 year old male, I have less: none. Still haven't grown hair on the center of my chest. I've got plenty of short hairs on my mid to lower arms, but no big collection of chest hairs.) One could speculate that I just didn't drink enough of that stuff.

As a boy, I've been known to cry, complain, or (in some way) express unhappiness when I would receive pain. My father would assess the damage, and would frequently tell me, "Aw, don't worry about it. You'll get better before you're an old lady."

I would say that if you want to stereo-type, the "hair on the chest" seems to be an equivalent. My findings, when I've tried the "old lady" comment: YMMV (results can vary), based on recipient.

TOOGAM
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