Something that’s a thing among edgy teenagers where I live. They wanna rock earrings because it’s “cool and edgy” but have to be careful about not getting only the “gay ear” pierced. Basically, if you only get your right ear pierced, you’re gay. It seems to flip depending on which town you’re in (in some places, it’s the other way round with left=gay). Sometimes the piercer themselves warn them beforehand about which ear is gay. Some people get both ears pierced just to be on the safe side.
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I remember this being a thing in the 90s. Then Michael Jordan got both his ears pierced and we all moved on.
This was definitely a thing when I was a kid (in the 90s), but no idea what the current generation of teens do.
this convention exists here, yes
I knew a lot of dudes who had only the left ear (or both ears) pierced, using the reasoning you describe.
obviously there’s nothing inherently homosexual about having only the right ear pierced.
This was sort of a thing I remember like 30 years ago but it’s completely meaningless now. A person could have either one or both pierced now and I wouldn’t think a thing of it. Not even sure how true it was even back then.
I haven’t heard that in years. In the late 80s where I was a teenager there was a saying about male ear piercings that went: “Left is right and right is gay.” Supposedly having your right ear pierced was how closeted gay men signaled each other. Whether or not this was true I don’t know. My father had a saying that trumped the left or right ear piercing debate which was “You won’t be getting your ear pierced while you live in my house.” I now work in the dining hall of a residential college and from my interactions with the students it seems that guys piercing one or the other or both ears is now personal preference and has no correlation to sexual orientation.
I think that was a 90s thing but I dont think it’s a thing anymore
It was a thing in the 80’s and 90’s
It WAS a thing. Pretty sure no one cares anymore.
It was a thing in the 90s. There were a lot of weird homophobic rules back in the 90s though, but now we realize it doesn’t matter and we were all being homophobic and insecure back then.
This was a thing when I was growing up not too long ago. I don’t notice a lot of guys with one ear pierced anymore though, it’s either both or neither.
Not since, like, the 90’s.
I heard this in high school around 2006. I always forget which ear and middle age men don’t tend to wear them.
I think this was a rumor started by piercing businesses to double their sales.
Lol yeah back in middle and high school we always said “left is right, right is wrong”
Wow, I haven’t heard this one in a while. Do you still play with pogs, wear slap bracelets, and listen to Ace of Bass on cassette in your country?
Definitely was a thing in the 80s and 90s.
Not since 1985.
That’s outdated. Back when being gay was illegal and you could lose your job and family if you were ever outed, gay communities had secret codes like this. It varied from place to place, but there were actually things that you could do to signal that you were gay, that would also be plausibly deniable in a society that suppressed homosexuality. Like, if anyone ever tried to call you out as gay because of a pinky ring (that’s another one of those secret signs) then they were also admitting that they know what a pinky ring means in the gay community. So you could just play dumb like “oh my gosh, I just wanted an earring, I didn’t know it meant *that!*”
Nowadays, with mainstream culture so relaxed about fashion and appearance, old codes like this don’t really work anymore. When straight boys have gauged ear piercings and fancy rings all over their fingers, you can no longer count on pinky rings and earrings as indicators of homosexuality.
I skimmed the comments and didn’t see anything about it, but it was an actual thing in the gay community in the ’70s and ’80s. By the late ’80s into the ’90s, I don’t think it was used as much as a signal, but the knowledge of it precluded a lot of guys from getting their right ear pierced specifically.
Yeah, definitely.
There was very clearly a gay ear growing up in the ’90s.
Maybe 30-40 years ago, but definitely not today, as other people have mentioned
It was a thing in the ’80s/’90s.
Now, if I see a guy with earrings, I just wonder why he would want them. His orientation isn’t my concern, either way.
This was a thing multiple decades ago
The early 80s called, they want their moral panic back.
I thought that went out with the ’80s.
if it’s the 90s and you are 12.
Are you a time traveler from the ’90’s?