Straight is the new gay

Camden Tasker, Contributing Writer

Straight men have become my arch enemy for one reason — they dress better than me. 

Since the conclusion of the world wars and the growing involvement of women in factory jobs, modern western fashion has evolved from just being classified as “masculine” or “feminine” to including a secret third option — “androgynous.” 

As androgynous fashion grew in popularity within the LGBTQ+ community, so did the concept of “signaling” — the practice of wearing specific items that indicate what community the wearer belongs to. It is a political statement. Carabiners, for instance, have been a popular signaling item worn by lesbians since the 1980s.

Fashion operates in a cycle. We constantly see the reuse of styles from decades past in our modern age, including the queer fashion trends of the 80s. As carabiners come back into style, it is straight men donning them on their belt loops — they are colloquially known as “performative men” on social media. There is even a contest for who embodies that title best happening in Monroe Park on Sept. 19. 

In the past, I would see a guy with a carabiner, dyed hair and painted nails and assume he was a part of the LGBTQ+ community. These days I can barely tell. It makes me wonder — is it my own bias that generates these assumptions, or is the style just signaling in the modern day? 

Although fashion is a mirror for our lives and our environment, there is a part of me that badly wants to contain queer fashion to myself. 

Carabiners are not the only example of mainstream fashion appropriating the queer community. Things like unisex styles, flannel shirts, men painting their nails and the cuffing of pant hems all have origins in queer culture.

The aspect of this issue that hurts the most is that queer people have been ostracized for decades because of how they act and dress. Now that being queer is “fashionable,” the style is reduced to just a trend. People crave the uniqueness gained from being queer, but do not understand the hardships that come with that identity. 

Queer identities have far more presence in culture today than they had in the 80s, and the queer voices that did make it into the media back then were often gross mischaracterizations. These days, we have a better representation of queer identities, so queer trends are allowed to enter the mainstream fashion cycle. It is inevitable for non-queer people to adopt these trends and interpret them as their own.  

In the end, I cannot tell someone what they can or cannot wear. My suggestion is this — wear what makes you feel happy, not whatever trend you see on the internet. Trends are just a projection of a desired, unauthentic persona. Uniqueness is what you make it.