Is purring an acceptable description for any woman..

[asurreymum]

My first thread on mumsnet so please excuse any protocol faux pas.
Suggesting that our queen purred is obviously not the smartest comment for our Prime Minister to make but is it ever acceptable for a man to describe a woman as purring to another man? I can't help but conclude it sounds derogatory in every circumstance and reveals an attitude towards women that in no way flatters the speaker. Am I overreacting?
Comments welcome .....

On the plus side, every cock up he makes - whether minor, like this one, or major like the whole referendum debacle - make him more and more likely to fail at the next election.

Sadly, that probably means we'll end up with Boris in his place. And we all know he's never made a faux pas in his life....

Is it a sexual thing? Purring? In all the Enid Blyton boarding school books the car engine always purrs when the parents drive away having left the girls at the beginning of term .

No, "purring" should only ever be used of cats. Or possibly cars. But certainly not people.

The pp who said this would never be said about a man is 100% right. It's just so "ugh", but it says a lot about Dave's lack of respect for women. Not that we didn't know about that already.

Odious toad.

I am a little to confess that I only realised the other day that George Galloway is not the same person as Alex Salmond.

Ah, that explains why the Daily Mash today wrote:

HER Majesty the Queen has the sexual energy of a young Michelle Pfeiffer, it has been confirmed.

I couldn't understand what all that was about.

Yeah, stupid thing to say.

Is purring an acceptable description for any woman...

In terms of any individual woman, and her intimate partner, I think it depends on the individual and her partner. In terms of Cameron in reference to HM The Queen? Highly offensive, disgusting, amazingly inappropriate etc etc. I hope that she privately hauls him over the coals for this and string him up by his testicles, then tells him to purr for her .

Zazzles

Oh, to be a fly on the wall at their next weekly meeting. I hope she freezes him out something rotten.

Also, how stupid is he? First rule of getting people to talk to you freely is not repeating what they bloody say.

I can feel my toes curling.

Yep imagine the next monarch/PM meeting- bet the Queen's tone will have a lot more in common with a glacier than a cat. Think that bit in Bridget Jones where the GBF says, "Ice, ice baby!" Ha!

He's just so gross. The smug look on his face when he was saying it. Ugh.

Is anyone thinking of DC at the next meeting saying "Oh do calm down, dear!" And getting a Paddington Hard Stare from The Queen.

He's been on the phone to apologise apparently and will apologise again in person next week. Would love to be a fly on the wall - I hope she gives him loads of icy disdain while he ties himself in knots trying to explain why he is such a witless arsehole

Yes, it's kind of hard to apologise for something you said that is entirely revelatory of who you really are, isn't it?

Apparently DC is 'embarrassed' - I jolly well hope so. I fear though that he is embarrassed at being on record with this remark, rather than about the remark itself or why he felt it was an ok thing to say about the queen or any person (his own sexual partner maybe excluded. Mebbee. I don't know how Mrs Cameron would feel about being described as 'purring' by her OH).

I absolutely hated that when I read it. Someone called him an 'odious toad' and for some reason that's exactly the right sentiment. He's just disloyal & smarmy. It's the worst kind of boasting. He speaks of the Queen that way as if he's intimate with her at the same time objectifying her & somehow making her sound submissive.

Yep, my skin crawled. He's running our country. Bleh.

It is so offensive and sexist. Quite frankly, if he'd been talking about his own mother it would have been offensive.

Watching the tape, it's so obvious he was trying to impress Bloomberg. God, how sad is it that the UK Prime Minister wants to impress an ex Mayor? I have never had any respect for people who bad mouth or make fun of other people to make themselves look better to others. And find it shocking when it's the prime minister about the queen. Even more so when its the CONSERVATIVE prime minister. You could sort of imagine Tony Blair being a bit disparaging, but Dave and his boys are supposed to be big royalist fans.

Misogynist twat.

Oh, I can hardly bear to think about it, it makes me feel so embarrassed! On one level that is partly because I tend to open mouth before engaging brain myself, and my toes are curling for him. (Even though I can't bear him!)

On the other hand he's the PM and his relationship with the Queen should be highly professional, respectful and sacrosanct. And I do think it comes from a place of patronising smugness and sexism on his part.

Luckily I think the Queen has been around the block enough times to rise above this. He looks like an idiot, she comes out of it unscathed. I wish she could haul out some arcane overlooked law that did allow her to put him in the tower though. That would be fun.

'Apparently DC is 'embarrassed' - I jolly well hope so. I fear though that he is embarrassed at being on record with this remark, rather than about the remark itself'

Absolutely right Pacific

He is an utter wanker. It shows his complete lack of respect for the Queen, not just as a monarch and the head of our country but also a lack of respect for her as a person.

He makes my skin crawl.