Earring for gay left or right

The idea of a "gay earring" based on which ear it's worn in is a stereotype that became popular in the s and s. According to this outdated belief, wearing an earring in the right ear signified being gay, while the left ear was considered straight. Which ear is the gay ear, left or right earring? Read more for the truth behind the complicated history of the gay ear concept.

Find men's jewelry trends here!. If the right ear was supposedly “the gay ear,” then by default, the left ear became the “straight” choice—especially for men who still wanted to wear earrings but didn’t want to risk being mistaken for gay. Nowadays, getting your ear pierced, whether on the left or right, or even both, is a popular way to express yourself. It's no longer a definitive statement about one's sexuality.

While it’s now thought of as a myth that an earring in the left ear means “straight” and one in the right means “gay,” it is true that over the milennia, people have used jewelry to signal certain things. We accepted it as gospel and never questioned its validity. 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.

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 earrings have indicated wisdom and compassion in the stretched earlobes of the Buddha, while pirates wore them in the belief it would protect them from drowning. In the Elizabethan era, earrings were quite fashionable for men, he writes.

guy wearing earring on right ear meaning

In the Western world, earrings, so long a purely female adornment, have recently been seen on increasing numbers of male ears. At first it was assumed that the wearers were all effeminate homosexuals, but it soon became clear the the habit was spreading to the more avant-garde of the young heterosexuals. This led to some confusion and stories began to circulate that there was a secret code, that to wear an earring in a pierced left ear was homosexual, and in a pierced right ear was rebel heterosexual.

The problem was that nobody could remember which was supposed to be which. In the end the male earring lost its sexual significance altogether, and simply became a generalized way of annoying middle-aged, latter-day puritans. Another guy got two piercings in his right ear in college, to which we all remarked that that he wanted everyone to know that he was a power bottom — which he is.

A man in the U. If it were in my right ear, that would mean I was gay. Quinn Myers is a staff writer at MEL. He reports on internet culture, technology, health, masculinity and the communities that flourish within. And in the 20th century, people got confused about which ear meant what: In the Western world, earrings, so long a purely female adornment, have recently been seen on increasing numbers of male ears.

What does Generation Z think of the whole gay code? Some time after that, of course, I made peace with the fact that I am gay. More Stories from MEL.