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I jokingly said to my friend who was putting a damper on my shopping spree with her constant whining:

C'est trop te demander de me laisser faire mon shopping peinard ? Toi qui pleurniches dans mes jupons, je pourrais carrément m'en passer ! Starbucks ne risque pas de prendre la fuite !

I wonder if it was appropriate for me, a guy, to use the expression "dans mes jupons", even if I wasn't talking about a real skirt?

Any suggestion for a more gender-neutral alternative to jokingly and pejoratively describe a sissy whining nag?

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  • I concur with the answer that says it is appropriate. On the same idea, I have a (male) friend who keeps on saying "ça fait mal aux seins",, and it seems more and more teenage girls say "ça me casse les c***lles !". I believe that such idioms are doomed to lose their gender denotation when they become popular.
    – Greg
    Commented Mar 7, 2018 at 15:03
  • @Greg I was concerned that "dans mes jupons" might not be established enough as an idiom to be used gender-free, especially given that there is no entry for the expression, even in Wiki.
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Mar 7, 2018 at 15:21
  • maybe you could find it under the variant dans les jupes ? At least that is how Larousse has it: larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/jupes/45179/…
    – Greg
    Commented Mar 7, 2018 at 16:04

2 Answers 2

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Dans mes jupons is not gender neutral. If the expression is used by a man, it is done humorously.

There is a close but not strictly equivalent alternative that can be used for everyone:

collé aux basques

See this question for details. Edit: that question was yours too...

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  • En plus de "collé aux basques" il y aurait aussi "dans mes pattes" mais aucun des deux ne va vraiment aussi bien avec "pleurnicher" que "dans mes jupons"
    – qoba
    Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 5:05
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It is entirely appropriate. There's nothing gendered about the expression in Modern French, though of course nothing prevents someone from making a transvestite joke after being told that.

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