Queerg the Earrg: Piercgs are Gay — STITCH

Contents:

• 5 FACTS BEHD THE "GAY" EAR
• HISTORY AND HYPOCRISY: WHAT THE "GAY" EAR PIERCG MEANS 2022
• WHICH EAR IS THE GAY EARRG? WHICH EAR IS THE STRAIGHT EAR?
• QUEERG THE EARRG: PIERCGS ARE GAY
• 5 FACTS BEHD THE "GAY" EAR

5 FACTS BEHD THE "GAY" EAR

Another way that piercgs exist wh queer culture is wh the “Gay Ear. ” Back when was much ls safe to be openly gay, was often seen that people would e s to signal to one another that they were gay.

Of urse, that was an herently sexual signalg system, whereas the gay ear existed as a fay iendly versn. “Born om the s is a phrase few now remember as faiar, ‘Left is right and right is wrong’ (‘wrong’ here meang gay)” (Lohei and Dellaquilla, “Pot 89”). That phrase, a time where the piercg muny was buildg self up greatly and gag populary, led to a large populatn g to an unrstandg that a sgular piercg the right earlobe reflected people’s inty as gay.

Though the spread of rmatn was nsistent, and at some pot few uld agree on which ear was the gay ear. Wh such nflictg yet wispread rmatn, many people wh one ear pierced went and got their other ear pierced so as not to seem spic and end up beg outed as gay to the general public when they are not ready to be, while others were unaaid and donned their sgle lobe piercg wh pri. In his article, Henry Fergon reunts that “Several of the staff had wanted to leave a badly jured patient to die on a trolley the rridor bee they were sure that as he was pierced and a motor cyclist he mt be a gay sadomasochist and therefore likely to have AIDS.

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

“Pot 89: The Gay Ear: The Pot. Have you ever heard the term "gay ear"? 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.

Fact 1: The “Gay Ear” Referred To a Man Havg His Right Ear Pierced. 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.

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

Fact 3: Right Earlobe Meant Gay, Left Earlobe Meant Straight. The practice of ear piercg history began to thread through hippie muni first and then through the gay muny.

QUEERG THE EARRG: PIERCGS ARE GAY

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. 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. Fact 4: The Gay Ear Was Used for Gay Signalg.

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.

5 FACTS BEHD THE "GAY" EAR

Disverg the secret “gay ear ” led to creased scty of men's ears by discrimatory dividuals.

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. Most people have pletely fotten about the gay ear fad or are too young to even remember .