What Makes an Outfit Gay?
Bya Mya Tran
I make fashion review powerpoints. I have no reason to suggest that fasion is an area in which I can have any kind of backed opinions, but I’m quick to judge and it makes for a funny group activity. My usual powerpoints cover the Met Gala, and recently, the WNBA’s draft. If you’re unfamiliar, the Women’s National Basketball Association had their draft this April. It was one for the books, as popular player and up and coming basketball superstar Caitlin Clark was shuffled into Indiana’s team. A friend of mine, pop culture and sports fanatic, asked me to review the fashion at the draft, calling it “disappointingly straight”.
What does that mean? I mean, seriously? We often say things have “gay vibes” or things are “queer coded” but what does that functionally mean? What makes an outfit gay or straight? How is something visually queer? How come every single Pride collection that gets rolled out in June doesn’t…well, feel gay?
Queer culture is a tough topic for many. Unlike many ethnic backgrounds, queer culture doesn’t find its roots in religious traditions or familial morals or things like that. Queer culture is undeniably a culture (I think we can all see that) but what makes it visible? The question of the visibility of gay people and how they show up on people’s “gaydars” is a question that has been asked since gay people hit the silver screen in the 1920s.
Androgyny. Dressing in a way that is either dually feminine and masculine, or doesn’t seem to lean either way is one of the large hallmarks for someone being visibility queer. I’m sure this seems from the whole background of queerness and gender fluidity. The LGBT community outright rejects typical gender roles, that’s what makes us gay and trans. People who dress androgynous are often easily clocked as part of the queer community, and this especially goes for those who have naturally androgynous faces. What many people don’t understand about the queer community is that bending this gender roles isn’t just about societal rejection or “looking slay”, it’s about embracing the fundamentality of queerness. Traditional gender roles and the LGBT community simply do not go hand in hand. It is our right to push outside of those barriers.
Sexuality, and I mean literal sexuality not sexual preference, is one of the biggest associations with the LGBTQ+ community. From drag queens to leather daddy’s and the furry community, sex is everywhere for queer people. The queer community, having faces hundreds of years of over sexualization and demonization for queer sex, has come to embrace sex and sensuality. If you go to a pride event, chances are you’ll find people that are extremely open about sex and sexuality. This goes hand in hand with body positivity. There’s nothing ugly or gross about queer bodies or queer sex, and queer fashion tends to embrace that. Dressing in a way that’s colorful and more revealing, or something along the lines of fishnets and leather is an easy way to announce yourself as queer to many. Celebrities such as Lil Nas X are often awarded within the LGBTQ+ community as hallmarks of the queers for embracing sex and sensuality.
The rainbow is one of the gayest things out there. Let’s be real, if you’re gay and you’ve seen cake with rainbow icing on it, do you think “Oh! A rainbow cake!” or do you thing “Oh! Gay cake!”. I know my friends and I are the kind of people to think “Gay cake”. Color has been and will always be important to the LGBTQ+ community. Not only are the rainbow flag and the many multicolored flags key symbols for gay people, but they have caused the association between gay people and bright colors to persist. Pride parades are often visualized with big rainbow banners and people decked out in glitter. Bright colors from clothing to nails and hair are one of the many things that set most people’s gaydars right off.
Queer culture is so much deeper than our slang and our movies, it’s our fashion and sense of style. There is a way to dress day, and no, it’s not just the preconceived homophobic man-in-a-dress. It’s so much deeper than that. It’s rebelling against gender roles, celebrating our colorful selfs, and celebrating our sexuality.
About the Author
Mya Tran is an incoming junior at Butler University, in Indianapolis, IN. They are currently studying English on the creative writing track and German. Growing up in a small college town with limited queer role models, Tran has spent her life with her nose in the books, looking for someone to relate to.
