Gammon is not racist

[brogdale]

In the original gammon gallery, quite a lot of the skin colour is self-inflicted rather than inherent.

I'm often a bit florid when I emerge from 'spoons; so that's me sorted, then?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

they are red faced because they are angry - its not about pigmentation its about capillaries. its directly related to their whole shitty worldview.

No it fucking isn't.

 

[cantsin]

Old white blokes with a heart condition. Yeah, brought it on themselves.

If they're fat, we should call them fat as well. Fat gammon fuckers.

you've said up thread you've only come accross the term today, but you're flailing about apparently desperate to squeeze it into whatever vaguely classist / otherwise offensive box you've alighted on next...no biggy, but maybe let it go, and see how it feels a few weeks (aka internet years ) down the line ?

 

[brogdale]

they are red faced because they are angry - its not about pigmentation its about capillaries. its directly related to their whole shitty worldview.

Honestly, not at all convinced that skin tone/colour is an area we want to be focussing on when it comes to insults.
Still, not a biggie, i suppose.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

you've said up thread you've only come accross the term today, but you're flailing about apparently desperate to squeeze it into whatever vaguely classist / otherwise offensive box you've alighted on next...maybe let it go, and see how it feels a few weeks (aka internet years ) down the line ?

No. Just cos I've only just heard of it doesn't mean I don't think it's really fucking rubbish. If a man's being being a cunt, call him a cunt. Not an old cunt, or a fat cunt, or a red-faced cunt. Just cunt.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

I'm often a bit florid when I emerge from 'spoons; so that's me sorted, then?

"'spoons"

 

[brogdale]

"'spoons"

What now?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Fat gammon fuckers.

not to be confused with david cameron...

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Whether it's racist or not I don't care. But it really is no better than calling someone fat as an insult. It's bollocks.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Can't we just go back to calling them cunts?

dunno.

not all cunts are tory/ukip types...

 

[Treacle Toes]

No it fucking isn't.

Yes it is.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Yes it is.

So if you see a slightly overweight red faced white man walking down the street you can tell something about his worldview from his complexion? What total idiocy.

 

[mojo pixy]

Some people .. in northern Europe quite a lot of people .. and China, Mongolia and Japan, now I think of it .. are ruddy-faced all by themselves, without any anger or a high blood pressure. Apparently such people are not Gammons, but the question is, who knows or cares about that?

 

[Smoking kills]

its appropriate - angry blokes - red faced.

tbh - fuck em. they're cunts.

Snowflake cunts.

 

[Kaka Tim]

So if you see a slightly overweight red faced white man walking down the street you can tell something about his worldview from his complexion? What total idiocy.

when has "gammon" been used against anyone other then some right wing shouty bloke? Its a stereotype about the men who hold those views - not a stereotype of older white men generally.

 

[Treacle Toes]

So if you see a slightly overweight red faced white man walking down the street you can tell something about his worldview from his complexion? What total idiocy.

Don't you wag your finger at me like that given you claim to only have heard the term today. What's idiocy is that you seem to imagine you know more than others when you clearly don't.

How do you think people know the views of the men in those pics of audience members on QT?

 

[brogdale]

It's not, being a middle age fat angry white racist bloke is not a protected group.

If you are angry at being called gammon you should probably have a good long hard look at yourself in the mirror.

nobody's going to be shoving gammon steaks through people letterboxes or screaming it at kids.

And maybe you're right that "it's not racist"...but...if you give it a little thought...it is doing that thing that racists do; placing skin colour at the centre of the pejorative comment/insult.

 

[Treacle Toes]

when has "gammon" been used against anyone other then some right wing shouty bloke? Its a stereotype about the men who hold those views - not a stereotype of older white men generally.

Exactly.

 

[brogdale]

when has "gammon" been used against anyone other then some right wing shouty bloke? Its a stereotype about the men who hold those views - not a stereotype of older white men generally.

Dunno, but given some of what's been said here, I'm beginning to wonder if it's what some folk think when they see me?

 

[brogdale]

Exactly.

Can a right-wing shouty person of colour be gammon?

 

[Treacle Toes]

Dunno, but given some of what's been said here, I'm beginning to wonder if it's what some folk think when they see me?

Are you prone to angry blustering, red faced, right wing rants with racist undertones?

 

[Smoking kills]

Can a right-wing shouty person of colour be gammon?

Blackgammon?

 

[brogdale]

Are you prone to angry blustering, red faced, right wing rants with racist undertones?

No.
So even if I look like gammon, I'm in the clear, then?

 

[Treacle Toes]

No.

No reason to worry then I imagine.

 

[mojo pixy]

It's like
I love white people .. but I hate gammons

 

[snadge]

Yes it is.

Directed at their capillaries or their world view? You didn't differentiate? I've seen a lot of the gammon slur lately and the only thing that it provokes to me is that it is being used as a comparison to a person being denigrated to a pig. Maybe a gammon should apply to the police force, social media has become a platform that allows confrontation without repercussion. Enjoy it while it lasts, the internet is heading for huge regulations and corporate interests will dominate.

Using gammon as a descriptive tag is racist, not that I care, the outrage that it causes provides excellent entertainment for me.

 

[Humberto]

As a wise man once said; you cannot serve cod and gammon.

 

[Humberto]

Its not about gammon qualities as much as its a subset of a class, well off Tory voters spouting off. The fucking pricks who run everything. Gammon is not racist, its a revulsion. Of what? I don't quite know. I don't think its classist or racist though. People talk about the Mail and Express, Question Time and so on. A lot of it, and the milieu who's outrage it sustains, is genuinely bonkers. Siege mentality, grievance over fuck all. I think it means petty minded Major Misunderstandings getting wound up. There is an element of it, eg. 'yob culture'. That goes back at least to the eighties. Waves of panic over youth culture. Piss taking is inevitable.

And, to be honest, we live in a country that votes for austerity, and when the 'national debt' increases several fold, votes for them again. I would say a little bit of light-hearted piss-taking isn't beyond the pale. Gammon does refer to the colour of skin, it does NOT call white people one dimensional, a sub-group or a threat to the country. Why? Because a load of wound-up, irate white men in their 50s just look like dicks.

 

[dessiato]

If gammon is an insult targeting only men, what do we call women with similar views?

 

[krtek a houby]

It's been said there's a class element to it and it's been said on the other thread that the racist bloke on the Ryanair flight was posh.

I don't see posh racist blokes as being historically oppressed and disadvantaged, so my sympathy for him being called a gammon is pretty much on the low end of the concerned scale.

That said, if the consensus turns out to be that it is unacceptable and all that, I'll reconsider my current position.