It's a new year and and a new , but that don't mean the world needs a new you. GQ unpacks the body image issu pervadg the gay muny.
Contents:
- WHY DO YOU THK I LOOK SO GAY? BY BILLY WILLIAMS
- HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
- WHY AM I "SO GAY?"
- AM I GAY?
- HOW TO LOOK GREAT AS A GAY MAN
- SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
- GAY MEN AND BODY PERFECTN
- WHY BODY IMAGE ISSU PERVA THE GAY COMMUNY
WHY DO YOU THK I LOOK SO GAY? BY BILLY WILLIAMS
Why do you thk I look so gay? by Billy Williams * why do i look so gay *
Whout beg aware of , most people n accurately intify gay men by face aloneAlthough I've always wanted this particular superhuman power, I've never been very good at tectg other men's sexual orientatn. Fdgs om a recent study published the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, however, suggt I may be unrtimatg my gaydar abili.
The January 2008 study vtigated people's abily to intify homosexual men om pictur of their fac alone.
In an ial experiment, rearchers Nicholas Rule and Nali Ambady om Tufts Universy pesed onle datg s and refully selected 45 straight male fac and 45 gay male fac. The 90 fac were then shown to 90 participants random orr, who were asked simply to judge the target's "probable sexual orientatn" (gay or straight) by prsg a button. Surprisgly, all participants (both men and women) sred above chance on this gaydar task, rrectly intifyg the gay fac.
HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
Ever sce middle school, people have asked Thomas Lloyd the same qutn repeatedly. "If I had a dime for every time I was asked, 'Why am I so gay?' I uld probably pay for one cred at Geetown." In this humoro talk, Lloyd explor the trici of social "verg" as a gay man, fdg muny and the importance of inty ownership. * why do i look so gay *
Then, they did a send search to fd other Facebook ers who had posted photos of the gay men their own profile. "Th, " the thors wrote, "by g photos of gay and straight dividuals that they themselv did not post, we were able to remove the fluence of self-prentatn and much of the potential selectn bias that may be prent photos om personal advertisements.
Aga, the thors superimposed the male fac (this time 80 gay and 80 straight) onto a whe background.
WHY AM I "SO GAY?"
Are you qutng your sexualy? Fd out if you’re gay, straight, bisexual, or asexual. Learn what the terms mean and if they apply to you. * why do i look so gay *
And even wh the more strgent ntrols, the participants were able to intify the gay fac at levels greater than chance—aga even on those trials where the fac were flickered on the screen for a mere 50 lisends. For example, when shown only the eye regn ("whout brows and cropped to the outer nthi so that not even "crow's-feet" were visible"), perceivers were amazgly still able to accurately intify a man as beg gay. Curly, most of the participants unrtimated their abily to intify gay fac om the featur alone.
That is to say, people seem to have honed and librated their gaydar whout knowg they've done so. But they also acknowledge that 's impossible to know om the fdgs what exactly is about the facial featur that give gays away.
AM I GAY?
Men general are more visually-oriented than women. Partly bee of this, gay men often put more effort to their appearanc pared to their straight unterparts. Dpe stereotyp, however, there is no narrowly-fed way of... * why do i look so gay *
I was cur enough about Rule's fdgs to look up "gay face" the Urban Dictnary, a popular Web se that offers rmal, er-ntributed fns of everyday (often crass) saygs. There were several fns of "gay face, " cludg this rogatory doozy:.
"A man, ually homosexual, wh a distctly effete facial stcture wh some very specific featur; a strong jawle [sic] that lacks promence, space between the ey that rell people wh down syndrome [sic], and a slopg, long forehead.
Now, that one's rather silly and sensatnalized—even polilly spect—and there's certaly no scientific evince support of the claims about the "mongoloid" featur of homosexual men's fac. But perhaps there is a kernel of tth to another fn of "gay face" the Urban Dictnary:. "Gay men do not differ om straight men the size and shape of any facial feature.
HOW TO LOOK GREAT AS A GAY MAN
Theory: Lbians get om their fathers, gay men om their mothers. * why do i look so gay *
Sce effemate gay men utilize siar facial exprsns as women, they velop female agg and mcle ntractn patterns their face. For example, gay face clus tightns around the mouth om pursg the lips, a facial exprsn mon to gay men and women—but not to heterosexual men.
SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
Many gay men want a perfect body, but the effort to get one creat real misery. * why do i look so gay *
Also, gay men are more emotnally exprsive, leadg to a general 'tightns' and mcular activatn throughout the entire face. Gay face clus an eye exprsn that is both surprised-lookg and predatory. There is often a slightly tan and/or leathery look to the sk, pecially among olr gay men.
Lbians also have a versn of gay face that emulat the facial mcular age patterns of straight men. For example, the send experiment, participants uld still ferret out the gay face when shown the eye regn sans eyebrows and cropped to the outer nthi. In addn, ntrary to this urban fn, there may ed be subtle, yet prently unknown, differenc between gay and straight fac.
GAY MEN AND BODY PERFECTN
(For example, one of my PhD stunts, David Harnn-Warwick, has a sual hunch that gay men may have sharper, clearer iris than straight men. It was only a few years ago that rearchers disvered that, unlike straight men, gay men tend to have hair whorl patterns that n a unterclockwise directn.
WHY BODY IMAGE ISSU PERVA THE GAY COMMUNY
Why do you thk I look so gay? Why do you thk I look so gay. WhyDoYouThkILookSoGayByBillyWilliams.