But I have been surprised by the lack of pearl-clutching editorials about the movie from right-wing pundits in the United States.
2007, Amanda Marcotte, It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments, Seal Press (2007), →ISBN, page 141:
When John Kerry “outed” Mary Cheney in a 2004 presidential debate, it was already well known that Mary Cheney was a lesbian. You can't out the already out, no matter what pearl-clutching pundits would have you believe.
2010, Suzanne Rivecca, Death Is Not an Option: Stories, W. W. Norton & Company (2010), →ISBN, page 95:
Her prim horror put Alma in mind of the pearl-clutching mothers of enterprising pioneers, shades of Pa Ingalls's disapproving urban in-laws.
2010, April Winchell, Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF, Villard Books (2010), →ISBN, page 131:
Even the biggest doe-eyed, pearl-clutching Etsy muffin has to find some way to make it okay to be negative, because we have no choice.
2013, The Best American Comics 2013, (eds. Jeff Smith, Jessica Abel, & Matt Madden), Houghton Mifflin (2013), →ISBN, page 362:
There's something truly irresistible about the pearl-clutching cartoons that came out during the time people thought women on bicycles were single-handedly going to bring society to ruin.
Adjective: "(idiomatic) shocking, frightening, or worrying"[edit]
2005, Maria Raha, Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground, Seal Press (2005), →ISBN, page 113:
However pearl-clutching her image may have been to a Reagan-steeped Middle America, Madonna had co-opted and popularized a punk subculture that had been questioning and subsequently rejecting everything since its official beginnings in 1976 — particularly notions of acceptable fashion.
2013, Sara Cotner, A Priceless Wedding: Crafting a Meaningful, Memorable, and Affordable Celebration, Voyageur Press (2013), →ISBN, unnumbered page:
Abby and Seth's relationship has weathered two pearl-clutching scenarios.