pearl clutching
Exaggerated moral outrage
Pearl clutching is a show of exaggerated shock or moral outrage, usually over something not genuinely scandalous.
The image is of a proper lady gasping and clutching her pearl necklace in horror.
The term is almost always dismissive, suggesting the reaction is performative or prudish: The pearl clutching over that joke was ridiculous.
Also hyphenated as an adjective: pearl-clutching conservatives.
- outrageFierce moral indignation
- moral panicIrrational collective fear wave
- scandalizedDeeply offended morally
- shockedDeeply startled or appalled
- how dare youRebuke expressing shocked offense
well I never · prudish · melodramatic · gasping · fainting · fainting couch · couch · Victorian · propriety · offended · prissy · aghast · horrified · good heavens · handwringing · hysteria · think of the children · moralistic
- emotional rhetoricpathos, emotional appeal, appeals to emotion, loaded language, loaded words
- prudishnessprimness, priggishness, prissiness, puritanism, stuffiness
- outrage culturerage bait, outrage porn, outrage cycle, viral outrage, virtue signaling
pearl clutchingnonchalance
Calm, casual composure
unfazed · indifference · equanimity · unflappable · composure
pearl clutchingopen-mindedness
Acceptance of differing viewpoints
worldliness · broad-mindedness · tolerance · live and let live · unshockable
pearl, clutch, pearls, pearled, pearly, clutches, clutched, clutching