Summary:
Grace says companies have made a great deal of progress since the 1950s, and describes what dress codes back then required men and women to wear.
Lyons says work and home used to be more clearly divided.
And Ueda says different people have different opinions on what's appropriate clothing.
McMillan shares a confusing expression that was used on an invitation he received.

get bad publicly
悪い評判が立つ、悪く報道される
H: Get a lot of negative attention from the public. "Company X got a lot of bad publicity for its sexist hiring policies." Or "They got a lot of bad publicity over the unsanitary conditions at the factory."
It's sometimes said that all publicity is good publicity, meaning that even criticism is good because it means you're in the public eye, it means people are noticing you. Not sure that's always true.

conservative
地味な、控えめな
H: In this case conservative means reserved, sober, not flashy or provocative.
"She's in banking, so she always dresses conservatively. You know, dark colors, no flashy jewelry."

unfeminine and scandalous
女性らしくなくてけしからぬ・恥ずべき・目に余る
H: Unfeminine is not feminine, not womanly. Lots of things used to be considered unfeminine: women working, women having an opinion. Be careful with this term, though. It's often discriminatory, implying that women are supposed to behave this way, and if they don't, well, they're not real women or they're not nice women.
S: 日本語でもそうですけれど、「女らしくない」「男らしくない」という言い方は差別的だ、というふうに言われることがありますね。
H: Scandalous means disgraceful, shameful, shocking. The idea is something angers us or shocks us because it seems wrong. "That company was using low-quality material in its products. That is scandalous, lying to the customers."


boundary between
何々の間の境界
H: He means the dividing line, the point where one thing becomes another. "This river marks the boundary between two states."
S: 「国境」という意味では border も使いますね。

whatever that means
それがどういう意味であるにせよ、それが何を意味するにせよ
H: We often use this about statements and slogans that don't make sense to us, or that are vague and hard to define. "I want to have a fulfilled life, whatever that means."
S: そうですね。よく意味が分からないけれど、こういうふうに言われている、書かれている、といったような時に、whatever that means、と使いますね。


give something a miss
何々を欠席する、何々をやめる
S: This means pass on something, not go, not attend. It's dismissive, like "No, um, er, I don't, I'm not gonna go." So be careful how you use it. Never use it to turn down an invitation. "Would you like to come to my birthday party?" "No, I'll give it a miss." That would be shocking.
It's better for things like "You know, I don't really like horror movies, so I'm gonna give that one a miss."


draw the line at
何々に一線を画す、何々に制限を設ける、何々まではしない
H: This is too far. This is the point where someone says no. "Other people can give me their opinion. But I draw the line at rudeness. I don't want people to be rude to me." Or "I'll do some overtime but I draw the line at every day. I won't do it every day."

WORDS AND PHRASESで取り上げなかった語句

as far as someone is concerned
H: In that person's opinion. And there's often a nuance here of regardless what other people think. If I say "As far as I'm concerned, this tax cut is a terrible idea." It sounds like "This is my position even if other people disagree."

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