WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HANKY CODE
The hanky code (aka. “flagging”), for those unfamiliar with the term, is a color coded system employed with handkerchiefs and used among the gay male casual sex seekers or BDSM practitioners to indicate preferred sexual fetishes, what kind of sex they are seeking, and whether they are a top/dominant or bottom/submissive, in an age when seeking and having gay sex could get you arrested, beaten up or fired (it can still get you fired, by the way).
Different colored handkerchiefs signified what sex acts you wanted — red for fisting and yellow for water sports, for example, and the pocket position indicated whether you were a dominant/top (left pocket) or submissive/bottom (right pocket). The hanky code was widely used in the ’60s and ’70s by gay and bisexual men, and grew from there to include all genders and orientations.
In our modern age of legalized gay sex and social apps, the hanky code has become more of a fashionable conversation starter at leather bars rather than an active way to solicit sex. Though it has largely fallen out of disuse, several queer artists have created new hanky codes in new and interesting ways.
Nevertheless, creative artists from around the world have given it a playful, modern reinterpretation. Die Kränken is a group of artists formed in 2015 in response to the extensive holdings on gay motorcycle clubs in Southern California housed at ONE Archives. The group’s name, translating to “the sick” in German, references both the historical pathologization of homosexuality and the pandemic of a generation of gay men, while nodding to the Blue Max, a local motorcycle club founded in 1968 that fetishized Prussian military uniforms and culture. Frustrated by gay assimilationist aspirations, die Kränken strives for new strategies of queer radicality.
Incorporating the sexual inclinations and gender identities of their members, Die Kränken designed 12 new hankies and created an exhibition entitled, “The New Rules of Flagging.” Their new hankies included ones for polyamory, outdoor sex, the app generation, womyn power, Truvada warriors and “original plumbing” (which was either a reference to the transgender male magazine or to urine and bathroom sex).
Die Kränken is led by artists Jonesy and Jaime C. Knight with contributions by Luke Munson, Matthew McGarvey, James Krewson, Kelly Marie Martin, Jacob Greenberg, Robert Acklen, Tim Jackson, Steven Rimlinger, James Caperton, Lindsey Taylor, and Stephen Fishman.
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