Sexualy as inty: gay and lbian language (Chapter 4) - Language and Sexualy

Contents:

• POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE
• THIS SECRET LANGUAGE ALLOWED GAY MEN TO COMMUNITE WHEN HOMOSEXUALY WAS ILLEGAL
• THE FETS AND JABS OF POLARI, BRA’S GAY SLANG
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• GAY BRA GLOSSARY
• 4 - SEXUALY AS INTY: GAY AND LBIAN LANGUAGE

POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE

”That may seem like a strg of nonsense words om Dr Sss’s The Cat the Hat or Anthony Burgs’s A Clockwork Orange but ’s a real-life greetg gay men the UK would say to each other the 1950s and 60s.

THIS SECRET LANGUAGE ALLOWED GAY MEN TO COMMUNITE WHEN HOMOSEXUALY WAS ILLEGAL

There’s a nflatn of genr and sexualy here which om some later perspectiv might be seen as problematic—to say that a gay man is lerally a man-woman keys to negative stereotyp about gay men as effemate or women trapped men’s bodi.

” She-g is one of the aspects of Polari that has survived to more recent s, and the practice was so pervasive at a particular bar on Canal Street Manchter’s Gay Village that a “She-box” was stalled a few years ago, ak to a “Swear-box, ” where patrons would have to put a few s if they she’d someone, wh the proceeds beg donated to chary. Internalized homophobia or jt pla nasts might make the tra attack their sexual partner or mand money om them, hence the term rough tra, although this term uld also refer more generally to workg-class sual male partners. Quent Crisp, spe beg a mp gay man, did not really e Polari his tobgraphi, although the televised dramatizatn of The Naked Civil Servant he do refer to roughs—aggrsively mascule workg-class men who disguised their attractn to other men through harassment: “Some roughs are really queer and some queers are really rough.

Highlights clu the John Waters-spired lbian theme night Female Trouble; the d-visual queer spectacular Outré Voyage, the male-centric mic nights Homodrop and Dissodoma, the by-femm/for-femm monthly Femmi-Errect, and the hedonistic Happy Endgs, which turns Superstore’s unisex loos to a pop-up rave. In Hackney Wick, near the Olympic Park, the monthly gay rave Chapter 10 is at Bloc and Pxssy Palace tak place at Mick’s you need fuel on your night out, Dalston is packed wh late-night eateri.

THE FETS AND JABS OF POLARI, BRA’S GAY SLANG

They clu Admiral Dunn, a historic pub wh drag shows most nights of the week; Ku Bar, a cktail lounge and club popular wh gay men; the lbian bar She Soho and the big urtyard bar The Yard. Although there have been high-profile closur recent years, remas a clubbg hotspot – particularly popular wh gay the banks of the Tham the south-wt of the cy, Vxhall has a history of entertament.

Vada (“look at”), dolly eek (a pretty face), and chicken (a young guy) are all words om the lexin of Polari, a secret language ed by gay men Bra at a time when homosexualy was illegal. Durg the terim years, when beg openly non-straight brought the risks of social isolatn and crimal prosecutn, Polari provid gay men wh a subtle way to fd one another for pannship and sex. In the late ‘60s, as gay liberatn groups were fightg for regnn and equaly, Polari h mastream Brish pop-culture the form of Julian and Sandy, two flamboyant, not-officially-but-pretty-obvly gay characters on a BBC rad show lled Round the Horne.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

Dolan brgs up the pot that gay men shouldn’t have to be “straight-actg” orr to be accepted: “Might not be more fun to embrace a b more mp and actually have fun wh ourselv and wh each other? Yet the years when homosexualy was illegal, was a way of munitg public whout riskg arrt – as well as a chance to challenge the stat was a secret language that beme a kd of verbal wk between gay men Bra durg the early 20th Century (Cred: Alamy)Layerg upon layerg of different fluenc ensur that there is no one sgle versn of Polari but many versns – Pl Baker“It was a secret, spoken form of language, ed maly by groups of people who were on the margs of society and associated wh crimaly, ” says Pl Baker, a lguistic history expert at the Universy of Lanster and thor of Fantabulosa: A Dictnary of Polari and Gay Slang.

FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY

” Some of the words are what’s been lled ‘backslang' – hair is ‘riah’, and face is ‘eek’ (om ‘ef’) was taken up mic halls, Palarie beme associated wh gay men at the start of the 20th Century. To make thgs more plited, Baker has seen a few ‘backronyms’, or fns applied after a word’s meang has evolved – such as ‘mp’ as g om ‘Known As Male Prostute’ 1967, the Sexual Offenc Act beme law, crimalisg homosexual acts that took place private between two men over the age of 21 (Cred: Alamy)Polari has s own vobulary for elements that mastream society is not terted – Pl BakerBaker believ Polari is a form of ‘anti-language’ – a term ed by the lguist Michael Halliday 1978 that Baker f as “a language ed by people who are on the ‘outsi’ of mastream society”.

Depuis l’époque où l’homosexualé éta synonyme perversn, voire dél, jqu’x actuell gay pris, la munté gay, lbienne, bisexuelle et transgenre n’a csé développer un langage distctif, le gayspeak.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

Milant tout tant que ludique, ce langage se vt également le défensr d’un certa style vie, cherchant à exprimer, manière la pl visible, poliquement rrecte et effice qui so, la richse s portements et s cultur du mon gay. 2Funny and provotive as may seem, this msage posted on Kks & Queens, a gay Swedish webse, not only reveals a visibily and culture that the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr muny was long pelled to hh, but also nfirms the existence of a lexin not que like standard English. From the darker ag when homosexualy was at s bt a s and/or a perversn until the prent environment of rabow flags and gay pris, gayspeak has been ed to transgrs social norms, articulate particular needs and emotns, as well as renstct, or re-terpret, realy.

When to elaborate polilly rrect fns of the « queer » universe, pk talk displays an extraordary plexy of sexual orientatns and subcultur, a possible means to pensate for lguistic ficiency and to claim a gay space on the social spectm.

GAY BRA GLOSSARY

Most male homosexuals therefore kept their sexual orientatns very much the closet unls amidst their k when they lled each other female nam—« Miss Kten », « Cha Mary », « Primrose Mary », and « Dip-Candle Mary »3—, a practice still faiar among ntemporary gay men. Until World War Two, rearch on what was then labeled the « language of homosexualy » foced on genr versn, wh homosexualy beg regard as a pathology characterized as sexual viance or perversn: whereas heterosexual language equated wh the appropriate genr, homosexual language displayed equent aquaci between the physil genr and the lguistic genr of the speaker.

4 - SEXUALY AS INTY: GAY AND LBIAN LANGUAGE

In the reprsive and secury-ncerned Cold War environment4, to talk about themselv, most gays and lbians relied upon phemisms such as « iends of Dorothy(‘s) », (after The Wizard of Oz, 1939, a classic mil popular wh gay dienc), « whoopsi », « (s)he’s is a ltle... Dpe the achievements of gay rights, the stigma attached to a « love that dare not [always] speak s name », to quote Osr Wil, ocsnally lgers the way some gays e « them » to refer to their partners and « refully word speech to hi explic genr referenc »16. For many Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr—or LGBT17—people today, pk talk works as a hive force agast discrimatn, although they also adm that gay exprsns have actually shifted om the physil nfement of the 18th century molly ho to a lguistic nfement.

5Sce 1993 [, ] the Amerin Universy Washgton DC has been home to annual nferenc on Lavenr Language and Lguistics, wh Lavenr19 Language beg fed as the way « lbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgenred persons and queers e language everyday life »20.