pull a train, was "Gang-bang": It's alive!

[Baker, John]

I heard "pull a train" in college in central Kentucky at about the same time, probably 1979 or 1980. I understood the phrase to refer to a consensual act, with alcohol perhaps being involved.  However, my familiarity was necessarily limited, since I never heard of a concrete example of a woman pulling a train.  The closest I heard was a woman complaining that someone else had spread a false rumor that she had pulled a train at a fraternity house.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Indigo Som
Sent: Monday, September 01, 2014 12:06 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: pull a train, was "Gang-bang": It's alive!

fwiw, I heard "pull a train" sometime in jr. high, Marin County CA in the late 70s. The more in-the-know friend who explained it to me used it so: "I heard she pulled a train." My friend's explanation left the (non)consent piece so ambiguous that even at that age I smelled a slut-shaming, rape-culture rat. Not that rape culture or slut-shaming were concepts that we had at that point, but I just remember frowning w/ confusion, wait a minute, did she get raped or did she want to do that, & why is it her fault &/or why is it her action (grammatically) if she gets gang raped?!

"Pull a train" was not in wide use among my acquaintances then; it's possible I may have only heard it from that one friend.

On Aug 31, 2014, at 9:00 PM, ADS-L automatic digest system <LISTSERV at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:

>> This phraseology caused mild consternation among St. Louisans 
>> because, in context, there seemed to be an element of *non*-rape implied: "*see* you"
>> and not "*make* you," not to mention "_a_ train" and not "_the_ 
>> train." The same - possible willingness on the part of the female 
>> participant WRT "pulling *a* train"


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