Leith on language
Sam Leith
Boy banned
“The absolute boy…” This phrase, used of Jeremy Corbyn, is a curious one, isn’t it? It seems to be cognate with, or at least from the same drawer as, “total lad” or “top bloke.” Many on the hated Blairite centre-left have criticised it for its implicit sexism. It’s hard to disagree with them. What is the quality of boyhood that we would find admirable in this earnest 68-year-old and near teetotal man? Cheekiness? Liminal sexual potency? Up-for-a-laughness?
This viral nickname is the linguistic token of a throwback to the Loaded-lad culture of the 1990s: a strand, though not the only one, in Corbyn’s hardcore support. Of course it’s ironic, but so was Loaded. Centrist opponents of Corbyn, especially female ones, think they discern attitudes that seem to bear out the analysis. This is the language of footie-terrace banter. It’s a token, as some would see it, of a general infantilisation of political discourse.