Stiff upper lip

Alternate uses: see stiff upper lip (disambiguation).

One who has a stiff upper lip displays fortitude in the face of adversity, or exercises self-restraint in the expression of emotion.

The phrase is most commonly heard as part of the idiom "keep a stiff upper lip", and has traditionally been used to describe a supposed attribute of British people, who were (and sometimes still are) perceived by many as being reserved. Author P. G. Wodehouse's comic novel Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, 1963, (ISBN 0743203607), parodies this British trait.

However this attribute is far less characteristic of 21st century Britain than it was previously, and there is now a new emphasis on emotional display. The emotional outpouring prompted by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 is seen by many commentators as symbolising the point as which the British lip became permanently tremulous. Many welcome the new ethos as being more honest. Many others lament it as a move towards self-indulgence and a weakening of personal responsibility.

External links

• The British Stiff Upper Lip at Sterlingtimes Virtual Scrapbook of British Nostalgia
• Keep A Stiff Upper Lip poem by J.M. Cavaness