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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   3658 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 23, 2023

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I read on this forum some time back that there is a saying in Russia that goes "a man shouldn't be prettier than an ape"

I'm been using the saying, but turns out that it isn't super widespread. I would like to quote it in the original russian. Could some other of our resident Russians tell me how to say it in Russian.

Мужчине достаточно быть чуть красивей обезьяны. It's sufficent for a man to be slightly prettier than an ape.

The meaning is ambiguous - "barely prettier than an ape" is either the upper allowed bound or the lower bound of male beauty.

"Мужчина должен быть чуть красивее обезьяны".

I believe it's supposed to be the «normative bound», that is, a man is ideally slightly prettier than an ape but not by too much as that'd be suspiciously gay.

@TheRealMcCoy you probably heard that from me, sorry if I was unclear.

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