When did ‘big girl’s blouse’ become an insult?

Fotherington-Thomas was introduced by Nigel Molesworth, the narrator of Down with Skool!, in 1953: ‘As you see he is skipping like a girlie he is uterly wet and a sissy.’ Geoffrey Willans featured the school sissy again in How to be Topp (also illustrated by Ronald Searle, who had spent time in a Japanese prison camp): ‘It is only fotherington-tomas you kno he sa Hullo clouds hullo sky he is a girlie and love the scents and sounds of nature.’

Last week, Sky News revealed what Boris Johnson said about David Cameron in private cabinet papers, after it had obtained an ‘unredacted’ copy of documents disclosed to court. The Prime Minister referred to him as ‘girlie swot Cameron’. This is nothing new. In 2013 he labelled as ‘Girly swots who wasted their time at university’ both Mr Cameron and his own brother Jo Johnson (who resigned from the government last week).