WASP - canon term?

[methylethyl.livejournal.com]

"WASP" seems to pop up a lot in fanon, in reference to Justin, Jennifer and Lindsay. I get that this is common term for country club brats, and that it does apply to them, but I don't recall ever seeing it used in canon. And since there's been a slew of canon-related questions on the comm lately, I figured that I'd throw in my own. *g* 

So. WASP. Is it canon?

Comments

[bksbracelet.livejournal.com]

Yeah it is used several times. One scene I can recall is when Brian is on the outers with Michael and he and Lindsay are chatting about troubles between the girls and Lindsay say's "I am a wasp from a long line of wasps" or something like that.

[chance-medley.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is. I don't remember which episode or what the exact quotation was, but Justin uses it to describe Jennifer.

[sodoesrachael.livejournal.com]

It's not *really* just a term for country club brats, but for any affluent white people, really. It stands for White Angelo-Saxon Protestant. But yeah, it is generally used to describe white people wealthy enough to belong to a country club. ;)

[gaedhal.livejournal.com]

Lindsay and her parents, Ron and Nancy, Justin and his
parents, Craig and Jennifer, as well as Molly, are all
WASPs.

There's almost always a class component to the term
-- lower class white Protestants are almost never
referred to as WASPs, although they are "ethnically"
the same as people like the Bushes, who pretty define
WASP. So Emmett wouldn't be called a WASP -- he's,
as Ted so crudely says -- White Trash. Ted, of course,
is also not a WASP -- he's German. And Michael, Deb,
and Vic are Italian-American Catholics, as the Kinneys
are Irish-American Catholics. And Mel is Jewish.

WASP have been the political, cultural, and business
elite of the U.S. for centuries -- something that is
only now beginning to break down. I grew up on the
fringes of this world -- we were Irish Catholics and
even though I went to the same schools, lived in the
same neighborhood, as my WASP friends and their parents,
we would never have been accepted at their country clubs
(no Catholics, no Jews, no foreigners -- everyone knew
the rules and no one talked about it). My best friend
in childhood lived in what would now be a "gated"
community within this wealthy neighborhood -- but it
was also "restricted" -- which meant no Jews. I remember
a Jewish friend (we were in the third or fourth grade)
crying because her mother wouldn't allow her to go to
to another friend's birthday party because it was on a
restricted street -- that was the end of her friendship
with that little girl.

[solarisday.livejournal.com]

The term might have been used loosely on the show to describe Justin and Lindsay's families on the show, but I do think there is a general overuse of the term in fandom, which, to be honest, I've always found a bit irksome. WASP is an acronym that stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, but it is usually only applied to a certain TYPE of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. The fact that Justin's parents lived in a posh neighborhood, sent him and his sister to - no doubt - exclusive private schools and had membership to a country club do not qualify them to be put in the same category as WASPs, not - at least - as true WASPs understand the term to mean. I live in New York, and I'm acquainted with some of these people and believe me they DO make the distinction. WASPs are traditionally people from Northeastern cities like New York and Boston, come from Old Money, and are politically and/or socially well-connected; powerful.

[meta1960.livejournal.com]

Well, english is not my native language, and I'm not familiare with a lot of abbraviations and quotes, but I would really like to know what the WASP means. Thanks. Metka