The gay ear piercing
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 WAIT Reach 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.. good for you, see ya around.
Why Did We Grow 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 like 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 report 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 rule of thumb has always been that the right ear is the gay one,” the author wrote about his own piercing journey.
Historically speaking, the truth 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 Study 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 come 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 late 70s so it
How did having piercings in the right ear become associated with homosexuality?
Obeseus21
I remember in the early 80s that left ear was straight and right ear was gay, though I knew several guys who had just their right ear pierced, and they weren’t gay. There reasoning was that they wanted an earring, and they didn’t want it showing in their left ear in case they got pulled over by a cop.
md
That’s not an urban legend, there is a well defined color code to indicate just about every fetish and left side means you like that fetish as a top/active (depending on fetish) and right is bottom/passive. It’s not used as much these days, but it’s not even remotely legend.
Most of these stories I gave as much credence as the “smoking banana peels” thing, which IIRC was a joke that some people did not get, so they tried to smoke peels. (Probably the placebo effect).
Similarly, I saw the argument that most motorcycle gangs were mostly modelled on Marlon Brando’s film “The Wild One”, a case of life imitating art imitating life. I wonder if a lot of this sort of hank