Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not know what a glory hole is at age 40???

230 replies

justcurious40 · 09/03/2017 22:39

My DH brought this clip to my attention earlier:

(about 3 minutes in)

And was shocked that, at 40 years old, I had no idea what a "glory hole" is. I thought he was BU, but everyone else in the programme had hysterics and all knew what it was, so am I just stupidly naive/ignorant?

OP posts:
NetballHoop · 09/03/2017 23:24

Crowd
Someone who wanks off poem star actors to keep them hard.

I'm liking the idea of teams of wankers helping the nations poets:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
My wanker brought me to my knees.

Tartyflette · 09/03/2017 23:24

I read somewhere that fluffers were redundant these days now that viagra is widely available.

MiddleClassProblem · 09/03/2017 23:26

Bless you lot. I went to the kind of school where we watched Porky's at a party provided by the host's older sibling. Just enjoy your innocence!

Tartyflette · 09/03/2017 23:26

Shit - cross post TimTam Blush

RockyBird · 09/03/2017 23:28

Fuck's sake, miners, dockets, call centre workers, oil rig roustabouts and now fluffers... where will it end?

MiddleClassProblem · 09/03/2017 23:29

Tartyflette loads of them down the job centre

Strygil · 09/03/2017 23:30

I remember reading once about the public bogs in Oxford Street in the days when they were a hotbed of homosexual liaisons pre 1967. The lavatory attendant was giving evidence in what was then called an offence of gross indecency involving glory holes, and at the end of his examination in chief, the defence barrister began his questioning thus, hoping to show pre-conception and prejudice on the part of the attendant:

DB: Did a great deal of the kind of behaviour that is being alleged here go on in your convenience?
LA: Not half, sir, they were at it morning, noon and night.
DB: And what did you make of it yourself?
LA: Well sir I believe in live and let live, but I'll tell you this: when someone came down my toilets for a good honest shit it was like a breath of fresh air.....

HenniePennie · 09/03/2017 23:32

I tried to watch that clip but really, really don't have the patience (what shit).

I know what a glory hole is - but I was brought up in Scotland. We all had one.

No idea what the fluffer thing is (but it doesn't sound that inspiring does it. Nothing like a glory hole)

HenniePennie · 09/03/2017 23:34

mylittlephoney - I don't think your husband knows what a glory hole is if you are "shocked, disgusted etc etc".

HemanOrSheRa · 09/03/2017 23:40

Christ. I'm pretty sure I read about glory holes and fluffers when I sneaked a read of my Mum's Jackie Collins and Harold Robbins books about eleventy million years ago Confused. Nothing to do with the internet.

PageNowFoundFileUnderSpartacus · 09/03/2017 23:40

I knew, but I have no idea when or how I knew.

Same here. I know all kinds of weird and wonderful - mostly weird though - sexual slang because I once had a job where I had to check naming applications for a sport's governing body and turn down anything too lewd. Urban Dictionary was my friend.

gillybeanz · 09/03/2017 23:42

The glory hole has existed since victorian times.
The little bit under the stairs was where you'd hide for hanky panky and was used for all manner of seedy sexual acts. Sardines anyone?
Victorian houses have glory holes, because the houses were dens of iniquity, especially the bigger ones.

tazzle22 · 09/03/2017 23:44

Well I have reached the grand old age of 60 thinking that a glory hole was the cupboard everything that was not in regular use resided and a flower would be something removed from ones belly button !

PageNowFoundFileUnderSpartacus · 09/03/2017 23:48

a flower would be something removed from ones belly button !

Might want to think about having the odd bath if you're capable of growing petunias in your belly button Wink

80sMum · 09/03/2017 23:50

A "glory hole" in UK English is an untidy cupboard or storage area. The same phrase is used in American slang and in the USA it has another meaning. But that doesn't mean that we in the UK have to adopt the US usage and reject our own!

It's a bit like how a "rubber" in UK English means an eraser for rubbing out pencil marks, whereas in the US it means a condom. That doesn't stop us from continuing to refer to erasers as rubbers.

I'm sure there must be plenty of other examples.

HemanOrSheRa · 09/03/2017 23:52

Weren't glory holes around during Roman Times? Or Ancient Greeks? When men bathed together and wanted some private pleasure? Isn't that where they orginated from?

mathanxiety · 09/03/2017 23:52

Sure she could be. What's not to be shocked, disgusted and grossed out about?

damnedgrubble · 09/03/2017 23:53

I'm in my 50s and I still don't know what one is so YANBU.

mathanxiety · 09/03/2017 23:53

In UK English the term has both meanings and has had for a long time, 80sMum.

SecretWitch · 09/03/2017 23:55

These are not to be confused with priest holes, obviously..

MadisonAvenue · 10/03/2017 00:05

I just thought it was the cupboard under my Nan's stairs Blush

HemanOrSheRa · 10/03/2017 00:08

Gawd. I will describe my understanding of a Glory Hole - it's a hole in a wall big enough for someone to expose their genitals in order for another person to access them for sexual pleasure. Where that hole in the wall is and who can access it may vary.

QuackDuckQuack · 10/03/2017 00:10

This reminds me of a house viewing we did about 15 years ago. The owner threw open cupboard after cupboard, each time declaring, "Here's another glory hole." In retrospect it would have been a better choice to have bought that house. But it was hard to think straight while concentrating on not laughing at him. He and the very sweary lady at another house made me realise the importance of getting a professional to do your house viewings.

Fluffer sounds so cute. I wonder how people end up working as fluffers - is it a step on the way to porn acting or something you get the intern to do when they are desperate to break into film?

80sMum · 10/03/2017 00:13

In UK English the term has both meanings and has had for a long time

Has it? How long is a long time? I don't know anyone in RL who uses the phrase to mean anything other than the 'cupboard under the stairs' type of thing. I can't imagine any scenario where the other meaning might be brought up in conversation!

Cartright · 10/03/2017 00:17

I think mathanxiety is right, 80sMum - it's not a UK/US divide, it's a UK gay subculture/non gay subculture divide. Glory hole has held both meanings (Geilgud's arrest in the 50s was to do with gloryholes. I think) but it's only more recently the sexual meaning has entered the mainstream.

Using glory holes - importuning - was a criminal offence which could lead to imprisonment and public disgrace for the men who used them. It's only in the last couple of decades that the stigma against homosexuality had begun to decrease. The age of consent for gay men was 21 until 1994; gay men weren't allowed to work in the security services until 1991. There's very good reasons why gay slang wasn't mainstream and why it wasn't used in general conversation...