cotton ceiling

noun — 2 senses

cotton ceiling

noun

Etymology Coined by Canadian activist Drew Deveaux. Modelled on glass ceiling. Underwear is typically made from cotton.

1

A social barrier to consideration (by cisgender women) of transgender women as viable sexual partners.

2

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cotton, ceiling.

  • On rough nights, however, the wind that finds its way beneath the rafters keeps drawing up and down the cotton ceiling in sudden gusts, and if the fastenings of your canopy are not very artfully contrived, one end or other of it is sure to give way […]1872, Mrs. Edward Millett, An Australian Parsonage; Or, The Settler and the Savage, page 56:
  • These ceilings on this house are not a canvas ceiling. They are a cotton ceiling and the water can drop on these ceilings […]1933, State of New York Supreme Court Record on Appeal, page 85:
Related terms
glass ceiling

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.