Is wearing one earring gay

Find men's jewelry trends here!. Lyst, a company that tracks online shoppers' behavior, claims searches for men's earrings rose by percent from to see: Lil Nas X, Jared Leto, Harry Styles, Bad Bunny. Is there such a thing as a “gay ear?” Of course not—but there is an intriguing history surrounding the practice of wearing a single earring, and one historian has blessed us with an explanation.

China has since banned men's earrings outright. In fact, most royals were adorned in as many gems and as much gold as women - if not more, depending on the occasion - making the sight of guys wearing pearls today, for instance, more a reflection of where we've come from than where we're headed.

Yet further findings, like the fact that "mono earring" queries are popular, suggest many are curious about different types of piercingsspecifically embellishing one ear only - proof that a single earring, and which lobe it lives oncan say everything or nothing at all.

The concept of men wearing jewelry is an old one, dating back thousands of years. It's true, though, that " dropping a hairpin " - the precursor to signaling a way to drop a subtle hint to someone that you, too, were gay - was both harmful and helpful.

On current rotation, Scully posits, is the septum piercing : equal parts rejection and an invitation, rooted in pleasure and pain. It is, however, a uniquely American conundrum. A article in The New York Times perpetuating the stereotype seemed to solidify the historical hearsay as the widely known style taboo many can't quit today.

Eyebrowsnoses, tongues, nipplesand belly buttons would soon become even louder ways to make a statement. No one really seems to know where the adage originated. T hese days, seldom does a piercing trend stick around for longer than a few weeks before a neologism replaces the one before it, permeating the halls of TikTok or Instagram and causing all of us to second-guess what was once considered mainstream - only to then swap a coveted wardrobe staple for the latest passing fad.

Gay Earring Side: Debunking : This belief grew quickly and spread in many places

Casting director and industry stalwart James Scully remembers his first encounter with the phenomenon, in the late '70s. According to this outdated belief, wearing an earring in the right ear signified being gay, while the left ear was considered straight.

It was once even more vogue, and still is, to have multiple piercings in one ear. Clean, etc. Which ear is the gay ear, left or right earring? And according to ancient Chinese belief, the left earring meaning also symbolized that a person's life had been endangered, and to prevent a recurrence, an earring was worn to prevent bad luck.

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. No longer is it that big of a deal that a cisgender, occasionally heterosexual man wears jewelry - not even those flashy beaded bracelets.

Or which side means what. Pre-Y2K and beyondit's been socially understood that wearing one earring on the right ear means someone is gay; the left, straight. Yet it helped earlier generations of queer people find each other in the crowd. Coleman and Theo Sandfort discuss the fact that straight Russian men would often mark their first sexual act with women by piercing their right ear as a way to ward off unwanted advances from gay men.

Despite recent data and celebrities supporting otherwise, the demagogic proverb "Left is right and right is wrong" has been a whisper placed upon gay and straight men and their piercers for decades. But the whole "gay ear" thing has always been ironic, considering its ever-changing position throughout history.

What Earring Is the : The Cut talks to men all over New York City – both queer and straight – about why they’re wearing a single dangle

Even today, one of the most unshakeable cultural signifiers has been the "mono" piercing - more precisely, and befuddling, on which ear it's placed and what it says about your sexuality. Still, certain exceptions prevail. Any piercing during that time, Scully insists, would have been an act of defiance anyway - pre- or postpunk era.

Read more for the truth behind the complicated history of the gay ear concept.