A narrow flat braid or rounded cord of fabric used for trimming. Also called guimpe, guipure.
In the urban dictionary:
A derogatory term for someone that is disabled or has a medical problem that results in physical impairment.
The term is used very loosely in the disabled community.. More so the ones that not only have accepted what life and circumstances have thrown at them but can poke fun at themselves as in laugh in the face of their challenge. They know their different and embrace the fact.
Not all are like this and are very bitter at the world and believe they’re a victim.
To use term “gimp” around them there would be great offence taken where you’d get sworn at or ran over by their electric wheelchair.
I personally “was” in that mindset to a degree. I hated being disabled or different. I wasn’t the kind to feel sorry for myself at all.. but I hated that I couldn’t do many of the thing other kids could do.
I spent my life in denial of having a disability so much so I actually felt uncomfortable around other people with disabilities. I HATED the word cripple and would lash out at anyone that used the term around me and kick them with my 500lb metal braces I wore as a kid.
I also had this ninja attack where I could do almost this sort of cartwheel to reach higher places then the shins. Now it was very rare I’d have to illustrate the fact I was not a cripple and would not tolerate any spoken assumption of it. People just knew. All through school I was fortunate enough to rarely meet ignorance or attack. It was more my attitude than anything I think. I just had to set the odd person straight as in zero tolerance. In the end, I believe it was more for my benefit then theirs though.
I had to keep believing that even though I had obvious challenges… I would not be limited by them.
So.. Why wave the gimp pride flag now?
Over the years, in my constant struggles to prove myself anything but freakish.. I started liking the “freakish” side of me. I liked that I was a fighter and could do whatever I set my mind to doing.
I had obvious differences but realized that more severe forms of freakish were the challenges people faced that you could not see.
I started to embrace and love who I was as a life.. and what I could do with that life.
It also started to become a responsibility to encourage others what a bit of willpower and desire can do!
I became more “aware” or “enlightened” to this responsibility after reading ‘Mans Search for Meaning’ by Viktor Frankl.
If one needs to find purpose in life it can be merely found by understanding that it’s not your struggles that make you a survivor it’s your overcoming. That itself is a purpose and a responsibility.
Others can find hope in overcoming challenges through seeing someone else overcome theirs.
What better purpose can you have then offer someone else hope?
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