How Cape Town's "Gayle" has endured -- and been adopted by straight people

Contents:

• POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE
• GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• A NEW LANGUAGE BETWEEN GAY MEN
• GAY STRAIGHT COMMUNITNGAY STRAIGHT COMMUNITN
• LEARNG GAY LGO: A STARTER GUI!
• HOW TO SAY GAY DIFFERENT LANGUAG
• GAY DICTNARY
• SWARDSPEAK: THE COLORFUL LANGUAGE OF THE FILIPO GAY COMMUNY
• "THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG
• FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD

POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE

GLAAD prefers that we don’t e the term homosexual bee ’s “aggrsively ed by anti-gay extremists to suggt that gay people are somehow diseased or psychologilly/emotnally disorred. () Wh a transgenr woman  Congrs and the immense populary of shows like Queer Eye and RuPl's Drag Race, gay culture is currently at the foreont of mastream Filipo nscns a way has never been before. Provg jt how funny the evolutn of language n be, achoo is the newt eratn of the classic beki term "pamta, " which refers to gay men who seem like they're straight.

Wh words like "sha, " "tea, " and "kiki" proment queer culture, sometim feels like 's impossible for straights to unrstand gays... The "secret language" was ed heavily by gays the circ, navy, and theater, and arose out of the need to discs gay matters unr a clever guise, due to homosexual acts beg illegal Bra until the passage of the Sexual Offens Act 1967.

Here's some of the amg slang: Basket - the bulge of male genals through clothFantabulos-wonrfulEf - face (backslang) DollyEf - pretty face Chicken - a young guySome Polari words still exist morn gay slang.

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

As gays began to fight for acceptance and rights, they ma a ncentrated effort to remove the Brish society's one-dimensnal view of all gays as beg overly mpy and effemate. Check out Atlas Obscura pots out, Polari was a great self-performative outlet for Brish gays to not only exprs themselv but also easily intify and n wh fellow memebers of the queer muny. ”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. ” 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.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

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.

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. 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.

A NEW LANGUAGE BETWEEN GAY MEN

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.

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. 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.

GAY STRAIGHT COMMUNITNGAY STRAIGHT COMMUNITN

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. 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.

LEARNG GAY LGO: A STARTER GUI!

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.

Dolan brgs up the pot that gay men shouldn’t have to be “straight-actg” orr to be accepted: “Might not be more fun to embrace a b more mp and actually have fun wh ourselv and wh each other? Due to our passn for workg wh gay men and explorg what li beneath the surface of our liv, we often fd ourselv havg a range of nversatns on that issue.

HOW TO SAY GAY DIFFERENT LANGUAG

What I have often found om beg on the scene or talkg to some of the men who have been on our workshop, is that there seems to be this fear of beg vulnerable wh other gay men. We meet other gay men as adults and often the sexual foc is paramount- pecially for those of who were starved of physil timate ntact wh men.

I thk back to when I me out my 20s and had sex wh many of the gay men that I met, all I wanted was iendship, someone to share my stori wh.

Do you thk the gay and mastream media are ready to hear gay men speak a new language – a language of beg thentic, vulnerable and showg that we are more than HIV/AIDS, prsn, Pri, pecs & abs, gay marriage and sex? Darren: Well there is ‘beg wh’ and there is ‘munitg thentilly’ and y you’re right, gay people have a problem wh both, unlike straight people who have never had to qutn their ‘beg’ as was always normalized.

GAY DICTNARY

Unnscly there is often a part of that don’t like beg gay and when we are surround by other gay men feels like were surround by mirrors flashg back the imag of the person we are that we nnot bear. I remember one day leavg home to meet some iends a gay environment, as I was leavg home I ught myself the mirror and noticed that I was not wearg somethg ‘figure huggg’, I immediately felt a need to change so that I uld feel ‘good enough’. Often the imag that I see portrayed the media show a superficial gay culture – where all look a certa way, only like certa thgs and drs certa ways etc.

They normalize the current image of what means to be gay, that I thk many who go onto the scene, eher flee om that bee they nnot relate, or clg to bee they know nothg else… and there is nothg else available – which is one of the reasons The Qut ronat for many, shows that there are many fac of beg gay and that gay men n munite thentilly wh each other. I then showed both pictur to the same iends and this time they got … gus go to show that the current language is normalized…… and yet, very much feels like many gay men are startg to say ‘hey, we want somethg different than what is currently available’…….

SWARDSPEAK: THE COLORFUL LANGUAGE OF THE FILIPO GAY COMMUNY

Ken Cage extensively explored the language’s history and velopment his 2003 book “Gayle: the language of kks and queens: a history and dictnary of gay language South Ai”. All of the varieti of language were veloped historilly by gay men (and to a lser extent lbians) who need their own way of speakg to avoid tectn and persecutn. There is a growg amount of rearch about Gayle, and ’s even been the subject of a short documentary, “Visg Gayle” by filmmaker Lren Mulligan.

“Moffietaal” n be traced to loured gay muni Cape Town which have a long tradn of queer subcultur datg back to the late 19th century (the word “loured” is ed to scribe people of mixed racial leage South Ai).

What mak “Gayle” different to gay varieti ed other parts of the world is that a batn of women’s nam and Aikaans slang to scribe other gay people or gay experienc. For example a “Polly Papagaai” is a gay man who gossips (“papagaai” means “parrot” Aikaans); an “Ale adr” is a vdictive gay man (“adr” beg a kd of snake).

"THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG

Yet there seems to be a lgerg perceptn by the populace at large that when a man speaks or acts mp that they mt be a homosexual and a failed man. This article has been updated to reflect that the South Ain ntributn to this disciple was penned by Ken Cage his 2003 book Gayle: the language of kks and queens: a history and dictnary of gay language South Ai.

IntroductnPerceivg and Communitg Sexual OrientatnGaydarFacial CuGa, Gtur, and Body CuVol CuMultiple CuCurrent Debate About AccuracySexual Orientatn and Interpersonal InteractnsNon-Verbal BehavrVerbal BehavrHomophobic LanguageSelf-DisclosureConclnOpen Qutns and Future DirectnsFurther ReadgReferenc. The article suggts preferred termology and also prents ways of creasg the visibily of lbians, gay men, and bisexual persons language. Language may be ambiguo reference, so that the rear is uncerta about s meang or s cln and excln creria; and the term homosexualy has been associated the past wh viance, mental illns, and crimal behavr, and the negative stereotyp may be perpetuated by biased language.

The term sexual orientatn is preferred to sexual preference for psychologil wrg and refers to sexual and affectnal relatnships of lbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual people. The word preference suggts a gree of voluntary choice that is not necsarily reported by lbians and gay men and that has not been monstrated psychologil rearch. The terms lbian sexual orientatn, heterosexual sexual orientatn, gay male sexual orientatn, and bisexual sexual orientatn are preferable to lbianism, heterosexualy, homosexualy, and bisexualy.

FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD

Lbian and gay male are preferred to the word homosexual when ed as an adjective referrg to specific persons or groups, and the terms lbians and gay men are preferred to homosexuals ed as nouns when referrg to specific persons or groups.

The terms gay male and lbian refer primarily to inti and to the morn culture and muni that have veloped among people who share those inti.

Likewise, is eful that women and men not be nsired "oppos" (as "oppose sex") to avoid polarizatn, and that heterosexual women and men not be viewed as oppose to lbians and gay men.