Sack Slap is a slang term for a game where a participant attacks, by slapping, tapping, punching, kicking, elbowing, twisting, or backhanding a victim's

testicle A testicle or testis (plural testes) is the male reproductive gland or gonad in all bilaterians, including humans. It is homologous to the female ovary. The functions of the testes are to produce both sperm and androgens, primarily testostero ...

s. The term derived from 'sack', slang that refers to the

scrotum The scrotum or scrotal sac is an anatomical male reproductive structure located at the base of the penis that consists of a suspended dual-chambered sac of skin and smooth muscle. It is present in most terrestrial male mammals. The scrotum cont ...

, and the activity is a form of

groin attack A groin attack is a deliberate strike to the groin area of one's opponent. The technique can be quickly debilitating due to the sensitivity of the groin area and genitalia, and is sometimes used as a self-defense technique. The technique is often ...

. This sociological manifestation of

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

can result in severe testicular injury that may require

amputation Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indi ...

as the only form of treatment. A reported increased popularity of sack tapping, fueled in part by

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

videos, and the subsequent increase in hospitalization has concerned parents and urologists.''Teenager Has Testicle Amputated After 'Tapping' Game''

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

, May 28, 2010'Sack Tapping' -- A Schoolyard Game Turned Ugly

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, May 28, 2010 It is also called "nut tag", "bag tag", "sack whack", "bell flicking" and "

roshambo Rock paper scissors (also known by other orderings of the three items, with "rock" sometimes being called "stone," or as Rochambeau, roshambo, or ro-sham-bo) is a hand game originating in China, usually played between two people, in which each p ...

", the last name coming from an episode of ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

'' that featured the practice.

Sociological impact

In 2010, a participant lost a testicle caused by

physical trauma An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, ...

that resulted from a sack tapping assault at school.Sack Tapping: Parents’ Threat Du Jour

discovery.com Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

, May 31, 2010

' chief medical

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

Dr. Tim Johnson commented, "the trend isn't restricted to Minnesota", and has "gotten out of control" as per Dr. Scott Wheeler. Dr. Wheeler, a urologist in Minnesota, has seen an increase of hospitalization caused by "sack tapping" incidents, and commented that

criminal charges A criminal charge is a formal accusation made by a governmental authority (usually a public prosecutor or the police) asserting that somebody has committed a crime. A charging document, which contains one or more criminal charges or counts, can ...

could be filed against the attacker as a result of the one instance. The casualty survived the surgery and can function normally with one testicle. The casualty's mother saw "what he went through every day" and withdrew his enrollment from school. "Sack tapping" has grown into a more dangerous game that can result in greater injuries. Dr. Wheeler recommend that parents warn their children of the dangers of "sack tapping".

Jack Shafer Jack Shafer (born November 14, 1957) is an American journalist who writes about media for ''Politico''. Prior to joining ''Politico'', he worked for Reuters and also edited and wrote the column'' "''Press Box" for ''Slate'', an online magazine. B ...

, writing in ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'' magazine in 2010, commented that despite the media describing sack tapping as "the latest dangerous craze", the practice was not new and had existed for some time, and the recent focus was simply "sensationalist journalism". He claimed to have been "taking shots to my crown jewels when I was a 1960s teenager", adding that the term had been listed in the

Urban Dictionary ''Urban Dictionary'' is a crowdsourced English-language online dictionary for slang words and phrases. The website was founded in 1999 by Aaron Peckham. Originally, ''Urban Dictionary'' was intended as a dictionary of slang or cultural words ...

since February 2003. He noted that urologists were not polled regarding an increase in such injuries, and were only asked to confirm that such injured were common.

References

{{Bullying Harassment and bullying 2000s fads and trends Problem behavior Violence against men

Sociological impact

See also

References