History and Hypocrisy: What the "Gay" Ear Piercg Means 2022

Contents:

• WHICH EAR IS THE GAY EARRG? WHICH EAR IS THE STRAIGHT EAR?
• 5 FACTS BEHD THE "GAY" EAR
• HISTORY AND HYPOCRISY: WHAT THE "GAY" EAR PIERCG MEANS 2022
• WHAT IS THE GAY SI FOR EARRGS?
• IS IT GAY FOR A MAN TO WEAR EARRGS?
• WHICH EAR IS THE GAY EAR? IT’S THE LEFT, HERE’S WHY!

WHICH EAR IS THE GAY EARRG? WHICH EAR IS THE STRAIGHT EAR?

Around the 1960s, people began to tch on that a right-ear earrg was effectively a for beg gay.

It soon beme clear that the "gay ear" was no longer a reliable way to tell if a man was gay or not.

5 FACTS BEHD THE "GAY" EAR

By the late 1960s, wearg an earrg the right ear was a pretty clear sign that a man was gay. It's important to note that the "gay earrg" was only ever nsired to be a signal for gay men.

Wh people of all sexual orientatns havg one or both ears, beme impossible to e an earrg to tell if a man was gay. But hasn't disappeared entirely -- you n fd plenty of fom posts onle om men askg which is the gay ear before gettg a piercg! The "gay earrg" wasn't the only thg ed for signalg that one was gay, although 's probably the most famo one.

Now that piercgs have bee much more mastream, gettg a piercg the "gay ear" isn't the clear ditor that once was. Men of all sexual orientatns now have pierced ears, and not everyone follows (or knows about) the history of the right ear as the "gay ear. That said, if you're gay, gettg a right-ear piercg n be a kd of homage to the history of g a gay earrg for signalg.

HISTORY AND HYPOCRISY: WHAT THE "GAY" EAR PIERCG MEANS 2022

As you might already know, one of the advantag of an ear piercg (whether 's on the "gay ear" or not) is that 's very easy to re for pared to most other piercg typ. If you've nsired gog for a gay earrg (or really, any ear piercg at all), we hope that you now have the rmatn you need to choose the right jewelry and piercg type.

Now ’s nsired a fad that has bee passe, but at one time, people really ed as a tell-tale sign of whether a young man was gay or not. When people talked about the gay ear, they referred to a specific ear beg pierced on a man. This trend didn't clu women the gay ear fad bee, most Wtern cultur sce the 1950s, has generally been a cultural norm for femal to have their ears pierced.

But wasn't until the late 1960s that people attributed a man who had his ear pierced to beg gay. The practice of ear piercg history began to thread through hippie muni first and then through the gay muny. Some straight people also enjoyed the trend and tablished that the left earlobe signified that they were not gay, even though they were a man wh a sgle pierced ear.

WHAT IS THE GAY SI FOR EARRGS?

Though some people preferred to have both ears pierced, the LGBT muny quickly cid that if a man had one ear pierced, namely the right one, on the earlobe, was a vert signal that he was gay. Sce beg gay isn’t jt herently somethg visible om someone’s looks, the LGBTQ+ muny of centuri past spent a good amount of time lookg for specific styl or trends to allow people wh the muny to show other people that they were gay and proud of . In some societi where beg gay was eher owned upon or illegal and punishable, LGBTQ+ members would choose subtle methods of monstratg their sexualy.

Over the centuri, among different societi, any good historian n pot to a few different methods of gay signalg. However, the subtle methods did ocsnally suffer when gay dividuals eher wanted a more prehensive monstratn of their gay pri or when straight people found out about the trend. By the 1990s, the fn of the gay ear had bee so nfg that most people jt shgged off the ia and cid that any man who had any part of his ears pierced mt be queer.

However, as punk rock culture me more promently onto the scene, enough men began havg their ears pierced that people cid to move on om the ia of a “gay ear” entirely. While the ia of a gay ear, or anythg really that’s a tell of someone's sexualy seems lghable today, was once an tegral part of LGBTQ+ culture. The ia of gay signalg hasn't stopped, pecially plac and cultur where people n't be as vol about their sexualy as they might want to be.

IS IT GAY FOR A MAN TO WEAR EARRGS?

Per one meme, the earrg is favor among “gays, micians, artists, goths, skaters, and bisexuals, ” or, as one earrg-wearer phrased , “creative souls Bhwick and the East Village. Troy, a graphic signer spotted at a gay bar, lled his sgle earrg a “female repellent” and said that he chose to pierce his right ear — the “gay” ear, acrdg to the historil trope — to dite his queer sexualy. Neverthels, today’s sgle dangly earrg tends to rist intarian labels, and many of the sourc terviewed said they hadn’t thought about the “gay ear” sce llege, or public high school the 90s.

Phillip Pirdi, edor chief of Out magaze, quipped, “I am about as gay as the day is long, so both of my ears are my gay ears. Pre-Y2K (and beyond), 's been socially unrstood that wearg one earrg on the right ear means someone is gay; the left, straight. Dpe recent data and celebri supportg otherwise, the magogic proverb "Left is right and right is wrong" has been a whisper placed upon gay and straight men (and their piercers) for s.

But the whole "gay ear" thg has always been ironic, nsirg s ever-changg posn throughout history.

WHICH EAR IS THE GAY EAR? IT’S THE LEFT, HERE’S WHY!

It's te, though, that "droppg a hairp" - the precursor to signalg (a way to drop a subtle ht to someone that you, too, were gay) - was both harmful and helpful.

And the "Café Dis" episo of "The Office, " Kelly n be seen piercg Andy a cutaway as he asks: "Are you sure that's not the gay ear? Coleman and Theo Sandfort discs the fact that straight Rsian men would often mark their first sexual act wh women by piercg their right ear as a way to ward off unwanted advanc om gay men.

"In llege, Phil Oakey (The Human League) had both of his ears pierced, which really threw people for a loop bee he was straight spe givg off the gayt vibe the world. He rocks the "gay earrg" on the regular - and on purpose, a signature style cue he refers to as his "gag du jour" on Instagram - rarely optg for a subtle ht of gold but a more-is-more approach. Today's isms, like no-makp makp and tantourg, don't force to relive the bt of the worst; rather, they remd that the journey of fg a "personal" style is as fe as dog the dish: you're never really Salem, the "gay ear piercg" is a smaller yet ccial part of a bigger picture.