Cornhole!?
In my youth, we called this game bean bag toss. I played many times with other schoolchildren. Occasionally, I would hear the term cornhole as I grew older, but it was so offensive in certain circles I doubted it would catch on.
Over the years, bean bag toss really caught on in colleges. To my dismay, it was widely called Cornhole. Then the tournaments started being televised. cornhole was everywhere. They’ve even begun giving scholarships for the game!
I first learned the term, cornhole, when I was pretty young. I overheard young sailors talking about it and joking in rude ways. I didn’t quite understand.
Later as the stepson of a police officer, I learned exactly what the term meant. It meant violent homosexual rape. It was in the context of prisons, I started to understand the term, cornhole.
Now this was in the 1970s, so it was a long time ago. Nonetheless, I continued to hear the term, cornhole, in ALL male conversations. I especially heard talk of it among men in ultra-macho professions or pursuits, like cops, soldiers, ex-inmates, and football players.
It was here that I understood what cornhole meant and what it stood for in these circles. It was about power, domination, humiliation, and submission. Cornhole was a verb in these circles. To be cornholed was to be owned in a way no man should be.
Later, in the next decade, it became more of a sexual term tossed around in certain social groups in Hollywood, CA…among other places. As sexual mores changed, the idea of being cornholed changed too, I imagine. It is hard to believe a term with this history would get such broad acceptance, but there it is.
