Polari is a secret language, or cryptolect, that served to help gay men England munite, and remas surprisgly fluential today.
Contents:
- THIS SECRET LANGUAGE ALLOWED GAY MEN TO COMMUNITE WHEN HOMOSEXUALY WAS ILLEGAL
- THE LOST GAY LANGUAGE OF BRA'S '60S
- GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)
- DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG
- HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
- FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY
- GAY SLANG OM THE 1970S
THIS SECRET LANGUAGE ALLOWED GAY MEN TO COMMUNITE WHEN HOMOSEXUALY WAS ILLEGAL
While hazg the lennials durg a meetg today, several of them nfsed to not knowg the basic lexin of gay slanguage. This is for them and everyone else who needs a reher. * gay slang 1960s *
Many untri around the world have their own versn of queer slang, om Brish gay slang rived om the rhymg slang Polari to beki – the Philipp’ queer language that borrows om a slew of sourc, cludg pop culture, Japane, Spanish, and the untry’s lol languag. But the Onle Slang Dictnary c 1960s gay male culture as the earlit known source, particularly rtoonist Joe Johnson’s characters “Miss Thg” and “Big Dick”, which appeared early issu of The Advote.
Part of the fun of rearchg 1920’s and 1930’s Queer subculture New York Cy was g across a wi variety of specialized slang and d terms that flourished among homosexual men and women of the time.
THE LOST GAY LANGUAGE OF BRA'S '60S
* gay slang 1960s *
Whether the highly lolised s and mannerisms that veloped as a way of circumventg the polil and social reprsn of sexualy the 19th and early 20th centuri ntaed the seeds of today’s LGBTQ+ culture is batable, but do leave wh a fascatg cultural miscellany of slang, drs s and even entire languag that were veloped orr that members of the gay muny uld teract wh one another safely. While the entertament dtry and red-light districts attracted members of the gay muny wh the provisn of unambiguo safe spac, classified advertisement pag newspapers were often full of thly disguised referenc to ancient Greece and wrers such as Walt Whman.
GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)
NPR's Stt Simon talks wh lguistics rearcher Pl Baker about Polari, a secret language spoken by gay men Bra the 1960s. Mr. Baker has wrten a book about the gay muny's lost language lled Fantabulosa: A Dictnary of Polari and Gay Slang. * gay slang 1960s *
Historilly-specific, nnot the style of gay men mid-1970 to mid-1980s (motache, short hair, fad, baggy Levis and pocket and/or neck handkerchief) as exemplified by the lead sger of the Bronski Beat at the time of their h sgle, Smalltown Boy.
DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG
From “gay” to “poofter” to “fairy” - the words ed by others to fe gay people n say a great al more about them than . * gay slang 1960s *
Until then homosexual actors, micians, athlet or anyone the public eye had two choic life: to keep their homosexualy a secret, pecially om the media, or adopt the mannerisms and a of drs which were very mp but at the same time (ironilly) never admtg their sexual preferenc publicly. Tom Robson released a very succsful song entled (Sg if you're) Glad to be Gay, was the mid-70s, and I was still at a Catholic primary school when I remember que distctly hearg gay beg ed for the first time to unteract the BrEng rogatory terms such as: poofter, poof, queer, not normal, fairy and queen that were rife at the time. In the send verse, pots to the hypocrisy of Gay News beg prosecuted for obsceny stead of porn magaz like magaz Playboy or the tabloid The Sun which publish photographs of topls girls on Page 3.
For me, a young child livg London at the time, the term gay (meang homosexual and not "happy") was ed much more equently by the media and the general public after the release of "Glad to be Gay". ”In 1959, when Lesch was twenty-four, he left his fay home, Kentucky, for New York Cy, where he found work as a pater, a bartenr, a rator, a journalist, and as the unpaid print of the Mattache Society, one of the first gay-rights anizatns. When the Stonewall rts broke out, three years later, he was the only openly gay reporter on the scene, verg the event for a new gay-focsed magaze lled The a recent Friday eveng, Lesch’s buzzer rang.
HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
An troductn to Polari, the old Brish gay slang, cludg a word list. * gay slang 1960s *
” Some of the fns were more nuanced: an “ntie, ” Lesch had wrten, was “an ageg or middle aged homosexual, offtim effemate character, ” or “a person of settled meanor who utns agast temperate acts. Photograph by Rebec FudalaNext up was Lesch’s llectn of magaz and newsletters, cludg After Dark (“Oh, bls you—they’re real llector’s ems, ” Bmann said); Christopher Street (“We have the archiv”); Female Mimics (“That’s fabulo”); the 1969 Time issue on homosexualy (“Cute”); and the monthly bullet for the Mattache Society.
Ntie – bear – benr – bottom – bum band – bum chum – bumr – bummer – butch – butt hugger – rpet muncher – tcher – chaser – chickenhawk – chicken hawk – cub – drag kg – dyke – fag – faggot – Fairy – femme – flamer – u – fudge packer – gay – gaylord – girliend – GLBT – hasbian – homo – homo thug – the closet – jobby jabber – lemon – lez – lipstick lbian – mge muncher – mo – nellie – nelly – Peter Puffer – pole smoker – poof – Poofter – power top – puff – queer – shirt lifter – sister – versatile – wasbian. The Begngs of a New Gay World“In the late 19th century, there was an creasgly visible prence of genr-non-nformg men who were engaged sexual relatnships wh other men major Amerin ci, ” says Chad Heap, a profsor of Amerin Studi at Gee Washgton Universy and the thor of Slummg: Sexual and Racial Enunters Amerin Nightlife, 1885-1940.
By the 1920s, gay men had tablished a prence Harlem and the bohemian mec of Greenwich Village (as well as the seedier environs of Tim Square), and the cy’s first lbian enclav had appeared Harlem and the Village.
FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY
Durg Prohibn, gay nightlife and culture reached new heights—at least temporarily. * gay slang 1960s *
Each gay enclave, wrote Gee Chncey his book Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, had a different class and ethnic character, cultural style and public reputatn. ”At the same time, lbian and gay characters were beg featured a slew of popular “pulp” novels, songs and on Broadway stag (cludg the ntroversial 1926 play The Captive) and Hollywood—at least prr to 1934, when the motn picture dtry began enforcg censorship guil, known as the Hays Co. ” By the post-World War II era, a larger cultural shift toward earlier marriage and suburban livg, the advent of TV and the anti-homosexualy csas champned by Joseph McCarthy would help ph the flowerg of gay culture reprented by the Pansy Craze firmly to the natn’s rear-view mirror.
Depuis l’époque où l’homosexualé éta synonyme perversn, voire dél, jqu’x actuell gay pris, la munté gay, lbienne, bisexuelle et transgenre n’a csé développer un langage distctif, le gayspeak.
GAY SLANG OM THE 1970S
Milant tout tant que ludique, ce langage se vt également le défensr d’un certa style vie, cherchant à exprimer, manière la pl visible, poliquement rrecte et effice qui so, la richse s portements et s cultur du mon gay. 2Funny and provotive as may seem, this msage posted on Kks & Queens, a gay Swedish webse, not only reveals a visibily and culture that the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr muny was long pelled to hh, but also nfirms the existence of a lexin not que like standard English.
From the darker ag when homosexualy was at s bt a s and/or a perversn until the prent environment of rabow flags and gay pris, gayspeak has been ed to transgrs social norms, articulate particular needs and emotns, as well as renstct, or re-terpret, realy.