clutching one's pearls
Feigning moral outrage
Clutching one's pearls is a gesture of shock or moral outrage, evoking the image of a proper lady grasping her pearl necklace in scandalized dismay.
The phrase is almost always used mockingly to suggest someone's reaction is prissy or overwrought: Oh, you said a bad word—clutch your pearls!
The related noun *pearl-clutching* describes performative shock or excessive propriety.
- shockViolent sudden disturbance
- moral outrageAnger at wrongdoing
- virtue signalingShowy ethical posturing
- tone policingDismissing argument over delivery
- outrageFierce moral indignation
think of the children · idiom · metaphor · indignation · prudishness · propriety · embarrassment · conservative values · moral panic · apathy · calmness · alarm · disbelief · Victorian morality · southern belle · dismay · sanctimony · societal norms
clutching one's pearlstaking it in stride
unfazed · unflappable · keeping one's cool · nonchalance · sangfroid
clutching one's pearlsopen-mindedness
Acceptance of differing viewpoints
broad-mindedness · worldliness · sophistication · permissiveness · edginess
clutch, clutched, clutches, pearl, pearls, pearly, pearlescent