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See, a hugbox is like an impenetrable barrier, where nothing can harm a person's feelings.
Hugboxes are to describe the places where people are censored if they aren't PC
So this is pretty accurate for defining how it's used in common parlance.
Here's where shit gets interesting (or spergy, depending on your PoV I guess) though.
The term actually comes from a real thing, a device called a hug box or a hug machine. There's a woman named Dr. Temple Grandin, who is a professor of animal science. Dr. Grandin is autistic. As you may know, people with autism spectrum disorders are susceptible to being overwhelmed by external stimuli.
Grandin noticed two things: 1) When she was younger she found the exertion of pressure on her, i.e. getting hugged, to be soothing, but found the human contact too stimulating. 2) while visiting a cattle ranch she saw that cows being vaccinated would often calm down after pressure was applied in a squeeze chute to keep the animal in place for treatment.
So, having had her proverbial lightning bolt moment, Grandin invented a machine that could apply the soothing pressure application she desired without the over-stimulation of human contact: the hug box was born.
Now, given the concept, a comforting, safe place where one is both soothed and free from exposure to things that are undesirable, I'm sure you can see how this connects to the way the term hug box is used on the internet today.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions about the kind of behavior people exhibit in- and out- of their hug boxes, as well as the irony that is the behavior of cattle and it's connection to this term in its current usage.
Interestingly I'm not sure if it was ever formally endorsed or recognized by the larger medical/mental health community as a therapeutic device. Apparently when she was in college and first built the machine the college faculty (I cant remember if it was mental health staff or counseling or what exactly) tried to confiscate it.
Well son, when a man and a woman love each other very much, but the shitlords just wont check their privilege, they crawl far up into their own assholes, until they reach something called a hugbox.
See, a hugbox is like an impenetrable barrier, where nothing can harm a person's feelings. But if you use it too much, you start to become desensitized to the world around you, and suddenly *everything * makes you want to crawl into your hugbox. And nobody likes someone who sits in a hugbox all the time.
I wonder who the first person to hug a box was and what his/her reasoning behind the embrace. Also, I wonder if it was a cardboard box or if it was constructed from sturdier materials.
You've never seen teenage girls form a hugbox around a friend? I've always thought that's where the term came from. They box their friend in with hugs.
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[–] HowAboutShutUp 0 points 14 points 14 points (+14|-0) ago (edited ago)
Settle in kids cuz I'm about to etymologize on your asses.
Okay, let's start with what @Gerplunckamo and @OMFG_TH3_1D10T said:
So this is pretty accurate for defining how it's used in common parlance.
Here's where shit gets interesting (or spergy, depending on your PoV I guess) though.
The term actually comes from a real thing, a device called a hug box or a hug machine. There's a woman named Dr. Temple Grandin, who is a professor of animal science. Dr. Grandin is autistic. As you may know, people with autism spectrum disorders are susceptible to being overwhelmed by external stimuli.
Grandin noticed two things: 1) When she was younger she found the exertion of pressure on her, i.e. getting hugged, to be soothing, but found the human contact too stimulating. 2) while visiting a cattle ranch she saw that cows being vaccinated would often calm down after pressure was applied in a squeeze chute to keep the animal in place for treatment.
So, having had her proverbial lightning bolt moment, Grandin invented a machine that could apply the soothing pressure application she desired without the over-stimulation of human contact: the hug box was born.
Now, given the concept, a comforting, safe place where one is both soothed and free from exposure to things that are undesirable, I'm sure you can see how this connects to the way the term hug box is used on the internet today.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions about the kind of behavior people exhibit in- and out- of their hug boxes, as well as the irony that is the behavior of cattle and it's connection to this term in its current usage.
And now you know the story of the hugbox.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
[–] HowAboutShutUp 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago (edited ago)
Thanks. I always get a little excited when I see a question I already know the answer to or something I recognize in /WhatIsThisThing
[–] AnTi90d [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Holy shit, thanks. I had no idea that it was created for autistic therapy.
[–] HowAboutShutUp 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Interestingly I'm not sure if it was ever formally endorsed or recognized by the larger medical/mental health community as a therapeutic device. Apparently when she was in college and first built the machine the college faculty (I cant remember if it was mental health staff or counseling or what exactly) tried to confiscate it.
[–] Gerplunckamo 0 points 10 points 10 points (+10|-0) ago
Well son, when a man and a woman love each other very much, but the shitlords just wont check their privilege, they crawl far up into their own assholes, until they reach something called a hugbox.
See, a hugbox is like an impenetrable barrier, where nothing can harm a person's feelings. But if you use it too much, you start to become desensitized to the world around you, and suddenly *everything * makes you want to crawl into your hugbox. And nobody likes someone who sits in a hugbox all the time.
[–] AnTi90d [S] 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Hugbox aficionados sound like heroine addicts.
I knew a heroine addict, once. Her face got really lumpy and then she disappeared.
[–] Gerplunckamo 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Lumpy faces do give the best blowjobs, though.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
[–] AnTi90d [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
The etymology is what interests me.
I wonder who the first person to hug a box was and what his/her reasoning behind the embrace. Also, I wonder if it was a cardboard box or if it was constructed from sturdier materials.
[–] identifier1 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
You've never seen teenage girls form a hugbox around a friend? I've always thought that's where the term came from. They box their friend in with hugs.
[–] AnTi90d [S] ago
When I went to highschool, if people were in a tight pack it was to keep teachers from breaking up a fistfight.
..but I had not heard of that form of hugboxery before.. a box made out of little girls.. Danny Elfman surely owns one.
[–] PandoraTheFirst ago
It's easier than trying to explain the whole story of that time you got trapped in an elevator with 16 koalas...