What ear is the gay ear

These days, seldom does a trend stick around for longer than a few weeks before a neologism replaces the one before it, permeating the halls of TikTok or Instagram and causing all of us to second-guess what was once considered mainstream — only to then swap a coveted wardrobe staple for the latest passing fad.

If you are wondering which side is the gay piercing left or right, then, to make a long story short, getting pierced in your right ear meant you were gay. There is a rich history of jewelry being used to show off wealth, nobility, or status. In the 20th century, it was used to show off sexual preference. A man would wear a single earring in his right ear to say he was a gay man. Join us in unpacking this old gay stereotype and ask the question: do we still need it? Since ancient times, people have been getting body piercings to show status or caste. Adornments like facial piercings and other jewelry were common.

What ear is the gay ear

You know…. Despite changing times and modern progress, many people still associate body piercings particularly a single piercing in the earlobe as a symbol of someones sexuality. So, just in time for pride month, the team here at Amato decided to delve deeper into where this all started. This is a time where there were no legal or social protections for people who were apart of these communities. Many people lived in fear of losing their jobs, homes, families, and even their lives. It was common to be physically attacked if it were found out that you were anything but straight. This need for secrecy led to some creative ways to live a lifestyle that was typically frowned upon. People in these communities would gather together in secret bars, or meet up around trails in local parks after dark, they even used certain forms of code which varied from location to location to subtly tell people they were gay. This phrase spread across the U. It was only worn by rock stars and tattoo artists. The transition into being more mainstream, was around the time that people were daring to get second and third earlobe piercings. A particularly rebellious person might even pierce their cartilage! With this slow introduction of piercing into the public eye, it was quickly cemented into many minds that the singular piercing in the right lobe on a man was synonymous with being gay. We must remember this was a time when discretion was life or death.

Joshooeerr Maybe the ear code was once widely understood in the US, but around the rest of the world it seems to have been mainly a source of confusion. So now I know why I had such a poor sex life at that time in my life.

We accepted it as gospel and never questioned its validity. But as I grew up, it seemed like everyone I met, no matter their place of origin, knew and understood the earring code, as arbitrary as it seems. Historically speaking, the truth is more complex. Earrings on guys have signified many things over the years, such as social stature or religious affiliation. In his book The Naked Man: A Study of the Male Body , Desmond Morris explains that earrings have indicated wisdom and compassion in the stretched earlobes of the Buddha, while pirates wore them in the belief it would protect them from drowning. In the Elizabethan era, earrings were quite fashionable for men, he writes. In the Western world, earrings, so long a purely female adornment, have recently been seen on increasing numbers of male ears.

Sorry, the content of this store can't be seen by a younger audience. Come back when you're older. Have you ever heard the term "gay ear"? When people talked about the gay ear, they referred to a specific ear being pierced on a man. This trend didn't include women in the gay ear fad because, in most Western cultures since the s, it has generally been a cultural norm for females to have their ears pierced. Keep in mind that this performative measure was originally used to discriminate against men based on their perceived social class, not sexuality. Initially, the only men who had pierced ears were usually sailors. But it wasn't until the late s that people attributed a man who had his ear pierced to being gay. Now, men have pierced ears for endless reasons.

What ear is the gay ear

Classes can only go so far in teaching real-world vocabulary, however. Throughout my immersion in the Deaf community, I feel like I have been collecting these signs and developing my own personal understanding of what they represent. Like English, the words and signs we use to identify and describe ourselves have power for ourselves, our audience, and our culture. As our words and signs change, they embody shifting individual and social representations of LGBTQ identities. When we step back and take a moment to analyze these signs, we can develop a deeper understanding of how our understanding of LGBTQ identities and discourse have evolved. Though the meaning and impact of a reclaimed sign depend on the experience of the signer, the listener, and their intentions, this sign has undisputed power regardless of usage. To me, this sign reflects our history as a resilient community —we were derogatorily described using words for the way that we were killed i. Instead of being passively hounded with hateful slang, queer people reclaimed what was once used to hurt us to instead instill us with pride. This is one of my favorite signs for queer because of the audacity of the sign.

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It was common to be physically attacked if it were found out that you were anything but straight. The gay ear was a nice subtle way to signal to other men that you were looking for men. If the mono earring has always been a conversation starter, then we have to address other ways style has elicited controversy, too. Once Monthly Annually. Through the centuries, the popularity of ear piercing has come in waves. A article in The New York Times perpetuating the stereotype seemed to solidify the historical hearsay as the widely known style taboo many can't quit today. We accepted it as gospel and never questioned its validity. It was only worn by rock stars and tattoo artists. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. This need for secrecy led to some creative ways to live a lifestyle that was typically frowned upon. Even for women, the fashion was to wear clip-on earrings. Pre-Y2K and beyond , it's been socially understood that wearing one earring on the right ear means someone is gay; the left, straight. But then, in the s, more and more people were getting their ears pierced. We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. In fact now, you can just hop on dating apps and find other men who are looking for men in your vicinity.

Culture is a funny old thing. Gay men and women had to come up with ways to signal to each other so that they could form communities and relationships without being harassed.

Gay men picked up on this fashion of communication. Despite trends becoming more fluid — the gap between gender-neutral styles in fashion and beauty narrowing — Salem knows the journey endures. The problem was that nobody could remember which was supposed to be which. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Well, if you were a heterosexual guy and you wanted to pierce an ear, it always had to be the left ear because the right ear was the gay ear. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. There was a saying around the playground that was so popular everyone seemed to know it. Piercings were more about punk rock and youthful rebellion then an underground symbol for sexuality. A lot of people don't know why they're dressed the way they are. Rock stars made the look appealing and more people got multiple piercings. It was only worn by rock stars and tattoo artists.