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[–] HowAboutShutUp 0 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:

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.

And now you know the story of the hugbox.

[–] [deleted] 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

[Deleted]

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[–] HowAboutShutUp 0 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

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[–] AnTi90d [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Holy shit, thanks. I had no idea that it was created for autistic therapy.

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[–] HowAboutShutUp 0 points 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.