hugbox

• hug box
• hug-box

hug +‎ box

hugbox (plural hugboxes)

1. A therapeutic device designed to apply pressure to the body of a hypersensitive person (usually someone on the autism spectrum) in order to calm them by providing grounding sensory stimulation.
   • 2011, Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing, Volume 3, Number 4, October 2011, unnumbered page:

     She [Temple Grandin] couldn't stand to be touched but was starved for affection and the safety of being contained. This need led to her clever device, the “hug box” which compressed her sides like the cattle chute it was modeled after.

   • 2013, Ashley Stanford, Troubleshooting Relationships on the Autism Spectrum: A User's Guide to Resolving Relationship Problems, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (2013), →ISBN, page 233:

     A short 10-15 minute time to yourself to think, meditate, or, as Temple Grandin did with the “hug box,” find a type of sensory feedback that calms your body and mind.

   • 2015, Cynthia M. Joseph, "Autism", in The Brain, the Nervous System, and Their Diseases (ed. Jennifer Hellier), Greenwood (2015), →ISBN, page 118:

     Furthermore, as an autistic individual she [Temple Grandin] was better able to understand the struggles and created the “hug box” which calms autistic children.

2. (slang, derogatory, offensive) An environment or thing which validates or reinforces a limited set of feelings or ideas.
   • 2011, "The Waif", "I Hate Activists", Oregon Commentator (University of Oregon), Volume 28, Issue 11, 18 May 2011, page 10:

     Instead, we get a bunch of hugbox panel discussions where people just reiterate the same, obvious points. Yes, rape is bad. We get it.

   • 2014, Emma Atlas, "Microblogging: Democratizing truth", The Diamondback (University of Maryland), Volume 104, Number 68, 10 February 2014, page 4:

     Discussions on social issues aren't so much “discussions” as online hugboxes, because the mechanics of Tumblr make it so.

   • 2015, Peter Heft, "Against 'Safe Spaces'", The Bullsheet (Denison University), Volume 59, Number 92, 23 March 2015, page 1:

     "Safe spaces" can be created in private or in the context of clubs of closed, tightly knit groups, but attempting to turn an unparalleled public space into a hugbox will solve exactly nothing and create a generation of crybabies.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:hugbox.

• (therapeutic device): hug machine, squeeze box, squeeze machine
• (environment which validates a limited set of ideas and feelings): circle jerk, echo chamber