Gay man standg wh his hand on his hip Stock Photo - Alamy

Contents:

• WHAT DO LIMP WRISTS HAVE TO DO WH GAY MEN?
• GAY MAN STANDG WH HIS HAND ON HIS HIP

WHAT DO LIMP WRISTS HAVE TO DO WH GAY MEN?

After enuragg fathers to “punch” sons who exhib stereotypilly gay behavr, North Carola pastor Sean Harris said on Tuday that he should have chosen different words. ” Why do we associate a limp wrist wh male homosexualy?

This had nothg to do wh homosexualy—the Romans didn’t nsir gay sex, per se, unmanly. In the 18th century, however, Europeans me to thk of homosexualy as a character tra rather than an ocsnal behavr, and gay sex beme the anthis of manls. Durg this time, limp wrists me to signify not jt ill disciple, but var other supposed failur of manhood, such as homosexualy, exhibnism, and foppery.

) As the ornamentatn and leisure of urtly life fell out of favor wh men, a limp wrist—often wh the other hand placed on the hip an “I’m a Ltle Teapot” pose—me to symbolize the unmanly homosexual stereotype. Whatever s origs, the associatn of limp wrists wh male homosexualy was very well-tablished the Uned Stat by the begng of the 20th century. ” At some pot—certaly by the early 20th century, but maybe even earlier—gay men -opted stereotypil postur and hand gtur as a way to signal their sexual orientatn.

GAY MAN STANDG WH HIS HAND ON HIS HIP

In a 1919 homosexualy trial New Hampshire, for example, the judge asked a wns how gay men intified each other. The wns said a gay man “acted sort of peculiar, walkg around wh his hands on his hips… the exprsn wh the ey and the gtur.

In his ntroversial stctns on how to al wh gay-actg children, Pastor Sean Harris picked up on a recurrg theme popular culture: how to tra apparently gay men to assume stereotypilly heterosexual mannerisms.