Si Guys: Thkg Beyond Gay Male "Tops" and "Bottoms" | Psychology Today

Contents:

• POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE
• GAY SLANG 101
• FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD
• GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• HOW TO SAY GAY DIFFERENT LANGUAG
• SIGNS FOR GAY
• SI GUYS: THKG BEYOND GAY MALE "TOPS" AND "BOTTOMS"

POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE

If gay life was a giant ballroom (and kd of is), kky leathermen have been lgerg the back, the shadows, for generatns. Long before hookup apps like Grdr and Scff, gay and bisexual men seekg sual sex wore lored handkerchiefs their pant pockets ditg what kd of sex they were seekg and whether they were a domant/top or submissive/bottom. The lor is pretty extensive and clus var kks and fetish, and is still ed today by gay clothg brands like Nasty Pig and CellBlock 13 — and, obvly, by kky gay men.

Pri, formerly known as Gay Pri, is a regnn of LGBTQ inty, affirmatn of equal rights, and celebratn of visibily, digny, and diversy the LGBTQ muny. While the word homosexual is still ocsnally ed some ntexts, you might have noticed that don’t make an appearance any versn of the LGBTQ acronym. As our age note on the term stat, “up until 1973, homosexualy was listed The Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM), psychiatry’s standard reference on the classifitn of mental illns.

GAY SLANG 101

And many feel that this word plac undue emphasis on sexual activy, or that sounds overly clil.” In fact, the term homosexual was liberately rejected by early gay rights activists bee, acrdg to The New York Tim, “they did not want to be intified as exclively sexual begs.”. Gay, on the other hand, n be ed to scribe a person of any genr who experienc same-sex attractn, although is most often ed to scribe a man who is attracted to men.

On June 28, 1969, the New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn, a bar equented by gay and genr-nonnformg people (at a time when terms like LGBTQ didn’t yet exist). They attempted to arrt the gay and trans bar patrons, which started a seri of protts agast the police.

Partially rponse to Stonewall, 1970, queer activists New York Cy anized a march to Central Park wh the theme “Gay Pri.” A more prehensive history of the Stonewall Rt or the Stonewall Uprisg n be found our Pri Month explaer. Queer lerally means “strange or odd om a nventnal viewpot,” and by at least by the late 1800s, queer was ployed as a rogatory term for an effemate or gay man. Queer was seen as a way to refer to gays and lbians whout beg genr-sentialist or g divisns wh the muny.

FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD

”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. To avoid imprisonment, gay men ed Polari, a language that the Oxford English Dictnary says is “ma up of Italianate phras, rhymg slang and nt terms. Ken Cage, Gayle: The Language of Kks and Queens, A History and Dictnary of Gay Language South Ai.

Homosexualy, heterosexualy and bisexualy n refer eher to: feelgs of sexual attractn to another person, or to the actual sexual practice between people of the same genr. We remend that the terms homosexual or heterosexual never be ed isolatn, but always be intified as referrg to eher feelg or practic.

Gays, lbians, soclogists, psychologists, human sexualy rearchers, members of liberal and some male fah groups e this term to dite a person's feelgs of sexual attractn to mal and femal. They believe that the term vers a wi range of feelgs and behavrs, cludg heterosexual or homosexual attractn to persons of the same age group, ct, polygamy, polyandry, btialy, and pedophilia. Many nservative Christians do not acknowledge the existence of a bisexual orientatn, believg peopl' feelgs of attractn to be eher purely heterosexual or homosexual.

GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE

Some people differentiate between homosexual and gay: homosexual is regard as a sexual orientatn; gay is a polil inty -- i.

Unfortunately, Polari’s orig story is fuzzy, as gay slang was not taken serly as a source of study until recently history. ” Combg the vernaculars of sailors wh a mix of Cockney and Yiddish fluenc, gay men also began to throw a sprkle of classroom-level French to add eher sophistitn or an ironic tone of refement, whichever the speaker choos.

But if you were to drop the lgo “Sea Queen” a sual nversatn wh, say, some late 1800s gay sailors, is credibly likely that they will know exactly what you are talkg about. Humor is a potent munitn tool often ed gay slang as a good-natured and vert tactic of iatg new people to unrstandg the queer perspective.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

The Black femme muny is a historilly powerful and fluential ntributor to the evolutn of gay slang. Gay slang, once a subversive exprsn of activism, has permeated the barriers of heteronormative culture time and time aga. Polari, and gay slang as is known and referenced today, exists bee s language is need as an act of fiance and cultural ristance agast the norm.

It’s nstantly evolvg d language formg durg hard tim when beg openly gay uld be dangero or crimalized. Gay slang, origally born on the outskirts of society as a means of formg a secret nnectn between different members of varyg ostracized muni, is today rightly valued as a powerful cultural fluencer of how morn Wtern society evaluat and exam art, culture, and media. As gay slang be more and more graed to the heteronormative lexin, is imperative to pay rpect by takg the time to unrstand that there have been centuri of folx who helped give vobulary to what was prevly unfed.

Gay slang gave vobulary for nversatns that did the mastream lexin did not have the language tools for. Language is power, and gay slang is an important element of what is viewed as morn-day munitn and the validatn of the LGBTQ+ experience. 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.

HOW TO SAY GAY DIFFERENT LANGUAG

In the 1930s was spoken among the theater typ of the Wt End, om which crossed over to the cy’s gay pubs, gag s stat as the secret language of gay men. In England, homosexualy was officially nsired a crime until 1967, when the Sexual Offenc Act legalized private “homosexual acts” between nsentg adults over 21.

) The Act me a after the ernment’s Wolfenn Report, which igned bate by remendg the partial crimalizatn of homosexual acts. 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. The Hidn History of Gay Life at Sea, Pl Baker and Jo Stanley wre that Polari played a role “allowg gay men to nstct a humoroly performative inty for themselv.

SIGNS FOR GAY

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. Julian and Sandy prented a nundm: as lovable gay characters on a very popular show, they enared themselv to Brish dienc an era of homophobia. By the early ‘70s, as LGBT groups fought for rights beyond those granted by the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act, the image of the mp gay man had bee the target of ire.

SI GUYS: THKG BEYOND GAY MALE "TOPS" AND "BOTTOMS"

Many who were lobbyg for sexual equaly, says Dolan, “felt was about gay people prentg themselv as jt ordary folks.

When Ecclton and Fairbairn posted the film onle, they were surprised by the enthiastic rponse—and the level of fascatn wh Polari, this myster, cipherable “gay language.

“The kds of nts still exist where opprsn is still entrenched, ” says Ecclton, cg Swardspeak, a language based on English and Tagalog that is ed among gay men the Philipp. Given s associatns wh stereotypil reprentatns of gay men, Polari may not seem to have a place the 21st century.