Learn Polari, the Secret Language of the Gays

Contents:

• A BRIEF HISTORY OF POLARI, GAY ENGLAND’S ONCE-SECRET LGO
• POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE
• REDISVERG POLARI: HOW THIS SECRET GAY LANGUAGE HELPED CREATE LGBT CULTURE
• PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS
• POLARI, THE FOTTEN GAY LANGUAGE
• TO BE GAY AND BIPOLAR
• THE FETS AND JABS OF POLARI, BRA’S GAY SLANG
• REMEMBERG POLARI, THE FOTTEN LANGUAGE OF BRA'S GAY COMMUNY

A BRIEF HISTORY OF POLARI, GAY ENGLAND’S ONCE-SECRET LGO

But for Brish gay men (and sometim women) the first half of the 20th century, Polari wasn’t jt a cute jargon: It was a secret , one that was absolutely gay Bra before about 50 years ago was dangero bs, and even beg perceived as gay then uld st you a prison sentence (homosexualy was crimalized the UK 1967). In fact, gay culture was discsed so rarely that newspapers would report on gay people who were arrted as beg guilty of "gross cency, " sce was nsired taboo to even wre (or speak) the words "gay" or "homosexual. " Gay people therefore need a way to munite about their relatnships (and gossip) whout beg unrstood by eavdroppers.

As language profsor Pl Baker of the UK’s Lanster Universy wr his 2002 book Polari—The Lost Language of Gay Men, was a lgo of "fast put-downs, ironic self-parody and theatril exaggeratn. " By other acunts, the roots of Polari are at least partially to be found the lgua an ed by Mederranean sailors and trars the Middle Ag and 's difficult to say when exactly Polari began, but at some pot performers—pecially actors, and pecially gay actors—began to e a distct argot to munite wh each other, often for the purpose of gossipg. The cle of Polari was rapid: In his book, Baker wr that "many gay men unr the age of thirty have never heard of .

”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.

POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE

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.

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.

REDISVERG POLARI: HOW THIS SECRET GAY LANGUAGE HELPED CREATE LGBT CULTURE

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. 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.

PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS

Comg to s own the late 1940s, Polari was the secret dialect of the unrground gay scene, allowg men to nverse eely about themselv and their sexual activi a time when they uld be imprisoned for their sexualy. In Queer London, a book documentg the history of gay culture the cy, thor Matt Houlbrook scrib Polari as “a way of creatg a space which to be queer, ” and nothg uld be more te.

“Fsy” also lacks the nuance of sheh, an adjective that scrib the troers both visually and culturally, bee if somethg is sheh  is also herently gay. * Although the term “drag” (meang men drsg women’s clothg) dat back to 1800s theatre termology, by bg wh the word “queen” or “quean” (which was a self-intifier for gay men London the mid 1800s-mid 1900s), Polari speakers created the current meang of the term “drag queen”: Queer men/people who drs women’s clothg for entertament. Published fal eded form as:PMCID: PMC5442596NIHMSID: NIHMS860386AbstractThe Bear muny exists as a subculture reactn to the larger gay muny.

POLARI, THE FOTTEN GAY LANGUAGE

While qualative data document such self-intifiers as mascule-actg gay men who weigh more and have more body hair, there has to date been no quantative analysis of this group’s characteristics.

In rponse, we nducted two large-sle studi of gay men intifyg as Bears (n = 469) to survey their self-reported physil, behavral, and psychologil tras. Keywords: Bears, Gay Culture, Gay and Bisexual Men, Self-teem, Masculy, ObyINTRODUCTIONThe gay muny is ultimately a heterogeneo one wh many subgroups and subcultur—one of the monali among them beg the sire to have same-sex enunters.

TO BE GAY AND BIPOLAR

Bee there is a arth of general rearch regardg this muny, and no studi to date that e quantative methods, we cid to explore this muny quantatively—g an Inter-nvenience sample, followed by a purposive suggted, the Bear culture exhibs and valu a greater sense of domant (but not necsarily domeerg) “thentic masculy” parison to other subcultur wh the gay muny (e. In rponse and ntrast wh Leathermen, Bears mata their mascule inty whout adoptg negative hypermascule tennci to acmodate all partners, spe their size or body is some theoretil support for why the Bear inty spltered om the gay male mastream culture.

” Bears may do somethg siar by alterg the meang of their heavier, shorter, and hairier physiqu, relative to mastream gays.

G., twks, partyboys, A-listers) that are anthetil to, and even antagonistic towards Bears, men who are hairier and heavier exist and adopt an inty to afont the stereotypil “alpha” gay male. Popular culture, the media, and Wtern hetero- and homosexual expectatns have normalized the ial male body as one that is lean, mcular, and v-shaped (wh broad shoulrs, a narrow waist, and a flat but well-fed stomach) (Olivardia, Pope, Borowiecki, & Cohane, 2000).

THE FETS AND JABS OF POLARI, BRA’S GAY SLANG

G., poor self-image/self-teem) velop both heterosexual and homosexual men exhibg ls sirable physil tras (Beren, Hayn, Wilfley, & Grilo, 1996; Morrison, Morrison, & Sager, 2004; Pepl et al., 2009; Weer, 2009; Yelland & Tiggemann, 2003). However, where mastream gay men report wantg partners wh those prevly stated, admired or revered characteristics (Moskowz, Rieger, & Seal, 2009), Bears may not (Manley et al., 2007).

Whereas mastream gay men often do not engage sired or preferred sexual behavrs bee of fears of rejectn or judgment (Kamski, Chapman, Hayn, & Own, 2004), those the more acceptg Bear muny reject the fears due to their beg ultimately “feme” nature (Hennen, 2005). G., uratn, fistg, voyrism, exhibnism) (Grov, Parsons, & Bimbi, 2010) to the active existence of the Bear muny and regnn of this subculture by the larger gay/bisexual male culture, more rearch is need to explore the gree to which the prevly mentned physil, behavral, and psychologil differenc actually exist. In explorg the smaller subcultur of the larger gay/bisexual male culture, soclogy, psychology, and even public health n better expla and addrs the needs of men wh same-sex attractns.

REMEMBERG POLARI, THE FOTTEN LANGUAGE OF BRA'S GAY COMMUNY

Specifilly, our first study was more exploratory and foced on the physil tras, partner selectn, and rejectn creria of gay men (wh which we llected enough Bears for analys).