Won’t stand for it? 不能容忍

Reader question:

Please explain this, particularly “stand for”: Face masks forever? Americans won’t stand for it.

My comments:

Americans don’t believe in face masks and won’t be able to tolerate the idea of forever wearing a mask to fend off the coronavirus or other similar viruses.

Americans won’t be able to stand it, in short.

To not be able to stand something, as we know, is to not be able to bear it. Some people can’t stand the rain, for instance, and others can’t stand the sun. Some folks cannot stand the taste of onion. Others cannot stand the taste of broccoli.

So on, so forth.

To not be able to stand for something is similar but different. Literally, it means not being able to stand still for it, stand still, as in, hold that position without flinching, without wanting to do something.

I’m not making it up, of course. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, to “stand still for” is similar to and probably derived from “hold still for”, i.e. holding a position fast without moving.

For example, we’ve all been told, as kids, to hold still while our elders are talking.

FreeDictionary.com explains “hold still for” thus:

Also, stand still for. Accept or tolerate something, as in Do you think he’ll hold still for your decision? These terms are often put negatively, as in The town won’t hold still for another increase in property taxes, or The teacher won’t stand still for this kind of behavior. The first expression employs hold in the sense of “sustain a particular position or attitude,” a usage dating from about 1300....

See?

So, in sum-up, if you cannot stand for something, you cannot stand still for it to happen without taking some opposing action. For example, we cannot stand still while watching a youth mugging an old lady in the street. We cannot stand (still) for something like that to happen.

In other words, we’re firmly opposed to it. We cannot permit or endure it. We won’t tolerate that type of behavior in silence.

As always, we can get a better idea of a phrase like this by reading media examples.

Here they are:

1. Looks like Selena Gomez is speaking out about the truly insane backlash Hailey Baldwin has been getting since the release of Sel’s new song, “Lose You to Love Me.” As a reminder, Hailey came under fire for posting Summer Walker’s song “I’ll Kill You” to Instagram Stories right after the release of Selena’s new single. And the reaction was... intense.

Hailey ended up speaking out about the situation by posting a comment to Just Jared’s Instagram account, writing, “Please stop with this nonsense...there is no ‘response.’ This is complete BS.” She later deleted the comment – but as we all know, nothing is gone forever on the internet.

And now, Selena has spoken up in what appears to be a low-key defense of Hailey, telling fans during an Instagram Live, “I am so grateful for the response of the song. However, I will never stand for women tearing other women down. So please be kind to everyone.” She later added, “Please be kind, I don’t like seeing people being disrespectful or rude to other people, so please don’t do that.”

- Selena Gomez Hit Instagram About All the Hate Hailey Baldwin’s Getting for That “I’ll Kill You” Post, Cosmopolitn.com, October 24, 2019.

2. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to travel to Florida on Friday to deliver critical remarks in response to the state Board of Education's approval of new standards for how Black history will be taught in schools.

The trip to Jacksonville will highlight efforts to “protect fundamental freedoms, specifically, the freedom to learn and teach America’s full and true history,” a White House official said in an announcement first shared with NBC News.

Harris, whose mother was a civil rights activist, will also meet with parents, educators, civil rights leaders and elected officials, the official said. Her last trip to Florida was in April.

In remarks Thursday, Harris blasted efforts in some states to ban books and “push forward revisionist history.”

“Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” she said at a convention for the traditionally Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta Inc. “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.”

The Florida Board of Education approved new standards Wednesday in a 216-page document detailing how public schools should approach Black history, including teaching students that some Black people benefited from slavery because it taught them useful skills that could be used for their “personal benefit.”

Changes to the curriculum were required by a 2022 law known as the “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act,” or “Stop WOKE Act,” NBC South Florida reported.

- Kamala Harris to travel to Florida and speak out against state's new Black history standards, NBCNews.com, July 21, 2023.

3. Argentina has lashed out at Lord David Cameron over the Foreign Secretary’s visit to the Falkland Islands.

The former Prime Minister touched down in Port Stanley on Monday ahead of a wider tour covering Paraguay, Brazil and New York.

He used the visit to pay his respects to all those British personnel who served in the 74-day conflict.

The war claimed the lives of 255 British servicemen, three islanders and 649 Argentine personnel.

However, Lord Cameron’s visit sparked a furious response from an Argentinian Governor.

Gustavo Melella said: “We will not stand for it. The presence of David Cameron on our Malvinas Islands constitutes a new British provocation and seeks to diminish our legitimate sovereignty claims over our territories and maintain colonialism in the 21st century.”

Lord Cameron’s visit saw the Foreign Secretary meet leaders of the Falkland Islands Government and a range of community groups.

During his visit, Cameron said: “The Falkland Islands are a valued part of the British family, and we are clear that as long as they want to remain part of the family, the issue of sovereignty will not be up for discussion.

- Argentina lashes out at UK ‘provocation’ over Falklands: ‘We won’t stand for it!’ GBNews.com, February 21, 2024.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣  编辑：丹妮）