Ear piercing which side is gay
Why Did We Increase Up Thinking a Piercing in the Right Ear Was Gay?
On the playground, it was a truth so firmly established that defying it meant social suicide: If you have an earring in your right ear, it means you’re gay. We accepted it as gospel and never questioned its validity.
It may have been the subtle homophobia of my Illinois community in the ’90s. But as I grew up, it seemed prefer everyone I met, no matter their place of origin, knew and understood the earring code, as arbitrary as it seems.
It was even solidified in the New York Times: A verb said gay men “often [wore] a single piece of jewelry in the right ear to indicate sexual preference.” In , the Times covered it yet again, in TMagazine: “the command of thumb has always been that the right ear is the gay one,” the author wrote about his own piercing journey.
Historically speaking, the fact is more complex. Earrings on guys have signified many things over the years, such as social stature or religious affiliation. In his book The Naked Man: A Revise of the Male Body, Desmond Morris explains that earring
How did having piercings in the right ear become associated with homosexuality?
gracefulfatsheba1
How did having piercings in the right ear become associated with homosexuality? It’s something I’ve heard for a long time and never questioned it until now. Whenever I see a guy with an earring, I instinctively check if it’s left or right out of curiosity.
When did this association become prevalent? Where did it enter from? Does it vary by culture?
engineer_comp_geek2
Not only does it vary by culture, which ear is the “homosexual” ear varies from region to region in the U.S. In the northern WV, eastern OH, western PA region where I grew up, left was the “straight” ear and right was the “homosexual” ear. I think that’s the more common version, but I’ve met plenty of people who said it was the other way around in their area.
I don’t remember earrings for men being very common in the s. There were some hippies wearing them but that was more of a protest of social norms than anything else. I remember hearing about the one earring means homosexual thing in the delayed 70s so it
Right=GAY
Left=Straight
Both=Normal
Male #2- "WHAT?! Dude, that's the gay ear!"
Male #1- "I know that."
Male #2- *slowly walks away*
Male #1- NO Verb COME BACK I LOVE YOU!!!!
Person 2: bro that’s the gay ear, you know that right?
Person 1: I thought you knew I was gay? Why else would I pierce my right ear only?
Person 2: oh… I did not. Welp.. wonderful for you, notice ya around.
Right ear, right queer?
David Babby explores the mystical and idiosyncratic world of piercing etiquette.
On a particularly grey, drizzly Saturday morning my friend set off to get her ear pierced. The decision had been made the blackout before amidst several other similarly stern lifestyle alterations.
The money had been counted out. Sustain had been garnered. After much intense discussion, the prettier nostril was identified and noted.
I was a bit tardy and arrived just as my companion was being steer in to a back room. The woman in charge of her had a good not many piercings, which was reassuring, and there was a crumpled bag of Meanies in the bin which showed that this was a fun place to work.
“So,” I said, leaning against the door, “Which nostril is the gay nostril?” To be honest, I thought I’d been post-gay hilarious, but piercing lady was not much impressed. “There is none,” she said drily and reached for her marker.
What I had not realised at the time was that my friend’s sister had already asked the same doubt before I’d got there and got a considerably terser response al