Would you raise this issue? Unwittingly appropriating/laughing about a term for selling women

zzzzz can I ask if you were old enough at the turn of the millennium to have been aware of you the word was being misused?

It certainly doesn't belong with 'primp' even if they sound similar.

zzzzz I think you should rtft.

We all know how the word has been used since the late 90s/early00s but we also know that the original meaning has definitely not fallen out of use yet.

Also when 'white people' started using it in an culturally appropriating way, they didn't realise how much it is always steeped in prostitution. Eg- 'pimp my ride' doesn't mean 'advertise/promote/sell my ride' - it means 'make my ride look like the car of someone showing off their excess money from selling women, in a community where people are generally poor and there is no other way of striking it rich'.

It is tasteless and inappropriate to use it in the context of the zimmer campaign and most people in business would never use it.

No I think you need to chill out a bit there

?

zzzzz

It totally means selling women. Just because people thoughtlessly use it as a metaphor for flashy, ostentatious gaudiness (in the style of an American pimp) it doesn't mean that word has lost its actual meaning.

I know the pro-prostitution lobby would prefer it if we referred to pimps as 'sex workers' and 'pimp' fell out of use, so sexual exploitation became invisible since we'd have no words to name the different roles in prostitution and discuss it.

But it won't happen as long as feminism exists.

Good work, OP! That word has to go, and the normalisation of sexual exploitation needs to be put in reverse. Thank you.

I would point it out and have a rage about it to whoever I was with, but I wouldn't bother bringing it up to the people on the stand. Wrong time and place to change their mind I reckon.

Yes, well done.

Well done OP.

Well done OP

There are plenty of good alternatives suggested on the thread. Good luck.

One could have "bespoke zimmers" or "customised zimmers"

Both of which suggest something good being made better ; not doing a cheap cosmetic makeover of an old banger to try and hide its worthlessness.

I wondered about the mockery aspect as well, especially considering that dementia patients are a main target of the program. So we possibly have a bit of ageism, ableism, and sexism rolled into one.

Also, I see that children can be involved in decorating the zimmers. That adds another level of inappropriateness.

'Pimp' is really not very acceptable at the moment and could be viewed as mocking the people using zimmer frames

Yes, aside from the connection with prostitution I agree there is an air of mockery about it.

A conversation here isn't likely to lead to anything productive. More than anything it would probably just annoy a friend who's worked hard at organising an local charity event.

People in charities are used to having to update their language all the time to avoid stigmatising or offending people - in fact they are at the front line of these changes.
'Pimp' is really not very acceptable at the moment and could be viewed as mocking the people using zimmer frames. The humour behind it really reminds me of the juvenile cultural appropriation and sexism of Will Farrel movies. It isn't appropriate.

I don't think people here are super in-favour of the expression Lass, or about to start using it as a female-empowerment tool, I just think you need to pick your battles, that's all.

A conversation here isn't likely to lead to anything productive. More than anything it would probably just annoy a friend who's worked hard at organising an local charity event.

You're welcome to feel differently without feeling that you're overreacting, (or implying that everyone else is underreacting).

I'm glad to see that later posts are coming out against the use of this expression. I was beginning to wonder if I was overreacting.

It is always a good idea to point out that a significant portion of the population will be offended by the terms they are using so if they are concerned about that they might want to have a rethink.
Dozens of apologies are made every year by advertisers just because no one ran the advertisement past a woman before they OKed it.

I think that ship has sailed

I disagree.

Prostitution was being heavily glamorised at the time 'pimp' was becoming normalised as a word.

Boys genuinely started turning against female friends/gang members and locking them in a room, supplying them with weed/whatever and getting their mates to pay to go in.

Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford. .. pimping is normalised, invisible and accepted everytime ignorant idiots use it to mean 'cool', 'glamorous' or ostentatious.

Since 'ho' is no longer bandied about and Jimmy Savile Harvey Weinstein have been exposed there is no reason 'pimp' can't be understood to be a truly dodgy word again.

Trying to use the term "pimp my X" (to mean glam up whatever the X is) for commercial purposes gets you a stern letter from the representatives of the trade mark owner. Or certainly used to when the show was at its peak.

I think that is at least partly why it's slightly fallen out of fashion.

I think it is at best cringey and manages to patronize everyone all at once. Ick.