Gammon (insult)
Gammon is a pejorative term used in British political culture since around 2012, which received press coverage in 2018. In 2018 it became particularly known as a term to describe white people, especially those on the political right or who supported Brexit, who appear pink-faced when emotional.[1][2][3] The term is a comparison of their flushed skin colour to the pink of gammon, i.e. salted pork leg.[4]
In 2012, Caitlin Moran wrote that British Prime Minister David Cameron resembled "a slightly camp gammon robot" and "a C3PO made of ham" in her 2012 book Moranthology.[5][6][7][8]
In 2015, Ruby Tandoh called Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood a "walking gammon joint”.[7]
In 2017, children's author Ben Davis tweeted a picture of nine members of a BBC Question Time audience and referred to them as 'the Great Wall of Gammon.'[9] This is arguably what led to the term becoming a Twitter meme.[10]
In 2018, there was some debate in the British media around whether the term was racist or ageist.[3][6] Actor and writer David Schneider has argued that it is a reaction to name-calling by some on the right, including terms like "snowflake, cuck, remoaner, libtard, beta, SJW and triggered".[8]
The term was employed by Charles Dickens in a descriptive sense in his 1838 novel, Nicholas Nickleby, to describe a character who is burly, tough and patriotic:[11]
- "The time had been, when this burst of enthusiasm would have been cheered to the very echo; but now, the deputation received it with chilling coldness. The general impression seemed to be, that as an explanation of Mr. Gregsbury’s political conduct, it did not enter quite enough into detail; and one gentleman in the rear did not scruple to remark aloud, that, for his purpose, it savoured rather too much of a 'gammon' tendency."
- "The meaning of that term—gammon,' said Mr. Gregsbury, 'is unknown to me. If it means that I grow a little too fervid, or perhaps even hyperbolical, in extolling my native land, I admit the full justice of the remark. I am proud of this free and happy country. My form dilates, my eye glistens, my breast heaves, my heart swells, my bosom burns, when I call to mind her greatness and her glory."[12]
See also
References
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- ↑ Moran, Caitlin. 2012. Moranthology p.27
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