Gammon

About

Gammon is a pejorative slang term used to describe white, middle-aged English men, who skew conservative on the political spectrum and support the United Kingdom separation from the European Union. The word compares these men to the pink hue of a cured pork loin that shares the name.

Origin

A gammon is a cut of pork from the hind leg of the pig that has been cured or smoked. Similar to bacon, gammon must be cooked. The word "gammon" comes from the French word "jambon," meaning ham.^[1]

The earliest known usage of the word "gammon" as a pejorative toward white men was posted by Great British Baking Show-contestant Ruby Tandoh on October 6th, 2015. She tweeted, ^[2] in reference to the show's hosts Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, "one judge is an actual victorian relic, the other's a walking gammon joint, tell me again about bake off's _{unbritish political correctness}" The post (shown below) received more than 130 retweets and 295 likes in two and a half years.

Spread

Over the next few years, the expression was used occasionally on Twitter with people comparing the skin tone of white British men to the color of the pork product (examples below).

On June 8th, 2017, Twitter^[10] user @bendavis_86 tweeted an image of nine white men, depicting them as the stereotypical Brexit voter. They captioned the photo "Whatever happens, hopefully politicians will start listening to young ppl after this. This Great Wall of gammon has had its way long enough." The post (shown below, left) received more than 120 retweets and 425 likes in one year.

On September 29th, Twitter^[3] user @hrtbps tweeted a a series of screen-captures from a British news debate on the subject of Brexit. In addition, they posted an image of several of the caucasian men arguing for Brexit. They captioned the post, "This gammon is one of the original 9. I put it to you that there are literally 9 old guys who, through lazy TV bookers, are fucking Britain." The tweet (shown below, right) received more than 1,500 retweets and 3,000 likes.

The men featured in the Tweet were later known as the "Wall of Gammon."^[4]

On February 7th, 2018, Urban Dictionary ^[5] user Dr Buckles defined the term as:

"A term used to describe a particular type of Brexit-voting, middle-aged white male, whose meat-faced complexion suggests they are perilously close to a stroke.

"The term 'gammon' is linked to the unhealthy pink skin tone of such stout yeomen, probably because of high blood pressure caused by decades of 'PC gone mad', being defeated in arguments about the non-existent merits of Brexit and women getting the vote.

"Gammon often make their appearance on BBC's Question Time jabbing their porcine fingers at the camera while demanding immediate nuclear strikes against Remain-voting areas, people who eat vegetables and/or cyclists.

"When gammon appears en masse it is often referred to as a "wall of gammon".

The post (shown below) received more than 330 upvotes in less than six months.

In the following months, as the term became more popular among detractors of the Brexit policy and supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, others began to argue that the term was racist against white men. On May 14th, The Times^[6] published an opinion piece entitled "Corbynites’ insults will only hurt themselves." They write, "Terms of abuse such as ‘gammon’ and ‘centrist dad’ keep the activists energised but will drive away swathes of voters."

Another English publication, The Guardian,^[7] disagreed, publishing an opinion entitled "No, ‘gammon’ is not a racial slur. Now let’s change the conversation." They continued, "The crybullies of the right are hamming it up over a term of mockery to deflect from their own poisoning of the political discourse"

Several media outlets covered the debate and use of the word, including HuffPost,^[4] NME,^[8] BBC^[9] and more.

Search Interest

External References