BLACKBURN AND SWEETZER

sassy - adj. (-ier, -iest)informal, chiefly N. Amer. bold and spirited; cheeky.
-DERIVATIVES sassily adv. sassiest n.
-ORIGIN C19: var. of saucy

Not too long ago I went on an interview for an “editorial” online job, which turned out to more of a glorified marketing position. As I was sitting there with the creative director and she was explaining the position to me, she said, “We’re looking for someone who can make sure we have a consistent tone and voice. You know, we want it to be really sassy and fun.” I don’t know if she could detect my feelings of disdain, which were not directed at her but the word. When can women stop being sassy in that aren’t we fun and fabulous kind of way? I call it the Sex and the City-ification of female culture. You see it in women’s mags, chick lit, online, at bars - a desperation for that combination of youth-cute-sexy. And who loses out in all this? Women. From the deluge of novel covers with perky illustrated covers to Katie Couric asking Condi if she has time to date on 60 Minutes to what brought me to this post today: I recently signed up for Thrillist’s Los Angeles edition (basically, a Daily Candy for guys) and what’s the pop-up advertisement? A subscription to The Economist. This may seem like a small thing, but this is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. And I haven’t even gone into the whole sassy black female stereotype…

So, I would like to propose an end to the word, or, at the very least, allowing it to lay dormant in the dictionary. There are so many other possibilities. Just look in a thesaurus:

sassy [adj] impudent
arrant, audacious, bold, brassy, brazen, cheeky, discourteous, disrespectful, flip, flippant, fresh, insolent, mouthy, overbold, rude, saucy, smart-alecky, smart-mouthed