Gaydar

[lordalfredhenry]

Poll Gaydar

We know about hair whorls and finger lengths but there's a LOT more to gaydar than that.

Comments

[melsmarsh]

I usually base my cues on body language and voice.

[lordalfredhenry]

My hearing is very tuned but I have a hard time with body language except when it's extremely obvious. Things like eye rolls, smiles, and wrist flipping and minced walking are perhaps the most obvious but its also body language concealed by a large number of gay men to the point that the only reliable indicators for me after that are voice and eyes. Interesting. BTW, I've also been able to pin down lesbians quite well too. (the ok cupid tests that as well, the best way for me to describe lesbian eyes are "doe eyes", not quite the straight male eyes but women with "gay male" eyes, also typically don't register as lesbian.)

Oddly, a lot of people I know "too well" don't register for me as well either. (I also tend to friend very unique people) I register strangers better. I guess it's too much information interference.

[melsmarsh]

I can't do lesbians very well because I often get mixed signals because of the huge amount of ftm/lesbian crossover. I also sometimes have a hard time with people I know too well.

[pangolin]

For detecting gay men, it usually has to do with mannerisms and contextual clues. I may perhaps have also subconsciously used some of the methods you described above. However, now that you've shown me those features, it seems somewhat plain, and I'm a little dismayed by the freakiness of it.

Lesbians are much easier. They have a certain look about them, and in today's society, there is much less stigma placed on a woman who dresses and acts somewhat masculine than the other way around, and lesbians often go that way, at least with their hairstyles.

[lordalfredhenry]

Yes, I feel the same way but for some men, too flat a brow looks odd too and sometimes the angled brow looks really dashing and handsome. Lesbians I somehow can do even better on sometimes and I'll have to do a photo montage for that some time. I think there are books about the overall masculinization of society because of various stigmas attached to high levels of femininity. To be fair, there are a lot of men who simply feel much better looking feminized too. I find that femme-loving, butch loving groups tend to congregate in different venues within the gay community.

[lordalfredhenry]

You have some good correlations there. I am shy to use dress much because of the room for error compared with some of the other phenotypical traits. It's not 100% perfect either (and hard to prove given such things as closets) but I can see the pattern you mention with the hair and alternative dress.

[lordalfredhenry]

For me, it's about safety and perhaps self-assurance (and the statistics that say that those who believe it's inborn, not a choice are about 80% more likely to be less bigotted and it works the other way around too) but dress is also a useful way to inquire about a guy...but it's not exact. I've made some mistakes before...and this test is very tough for me

[jcody28]

This post had me staring in the mirror for awhile, and yup, I got those brows. This reminds me of the eugenics studies that were popular in the early 20th century..and I can understand why you would worry about the applications of this idea your proposing. A few years ago on 60 minutes they did a segment on a scientist that was studying the causes of homosexuality, among other things it featured a gay rat..metaphorically that speaks volumes...and it's not a pretty metaphor.
Personally I am terrible at gaydar, I can't tell a joke from a poke so to speak...and I am usually wrong. What about the "bi" sexual men? Call me an asshole but I don't believe to strongly in male bisexuality. Any thoughts on how to detect the bi's?

[lordalfredhenry]

You're not alone. Other scientists deny male bisexuality on a biometric (penile to orientation stimulus responsiveness measurements) level or various other measures. If you want to detect bisexuals, they would have features perhaps "in between" or very mild gay features...although this isn't always a given

[jcody28]

just out of curiosity what does penis measurement have to do with sexual orientation? Not to sound like a ho or anything, but I've seen all shapes and sizes, nelly queens with big cocks, as well as butch macho straight acting guys with micro penis...along with any and all variables in and beyond those extremes. I've seen some transgendered m2f
who were huge...so I'm just curious as to what the motives are of such scientists. Is it a homophobic pissing contest? Just curious...

[lordalfredhenry]

Nothing at all except in terms of arousal. I refer not to baseline "size" or anything.

[cactus_rs]

It looks like there's something with the smile, too, with the pictures you chose. Not the same as the infamous "pedo smile" but a strange sort of idiosyncrasy.

[lordalfredhenry]

I've thought there was something interesting with the size or juttingness of the chin too which might affect the smile.