Post #2511960
2026-04-25 10:07 UTC
@JosJuice@mastodon.social @larsmb@mastodon.online @Craigp@mastodon.social
When I was a kid, that word was an ableist slur for a person who couldn't walk unaided, and we used it as a general-purpose insult because teenage boys are awful people.
I didn't know the sexual meaning until much later - specifically, until a girlfriend got me to watch Pulp Fiction with her. When the movie had the line "bring out the g*mp", I genuinely thought it was going to be a person in a wheelchair or something, and when I expressed this confusion to her she laughed more or less nonstop for weeks.
Replies (1)
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@larsmb@mastodon.online 2026-04-25 10:09
@passenger@kolektiva.social @JosJuice@mastodon.social @Craigp@mastodon.social The first, and for many years only, meaning of the word to me was the abbreviation. I'm not trying to defend anything here - I think after being told, they should have rushed to rename! - but that probably explains partly why the backlash isn't stronger. For many non-native speakers, the word has no deeply seated meaning.