GAYDAR

'Gaydar' (a portmanteau of ''gay'' and ''radar'') is the intuitive ability to determine whether another person is gay or bisexual. Whether anyone actually has such an ability is a debated question, especially in Western culture.
The idea of "gaydar" relies on indirect senses and intuitions rather than direct questions ("Are you gay?") or fact-finding (like researching the identity of previous romantic partners). It also relies on sensitivity to certain mannerisms: anything from flamboyant or overt rejection of traditional gender roles (including occupation, grooming habits, and so on) to more subtle clues, like one's style preferences or other personal tastes or habits.

Contents

Stereotype reinforcement

Scientific research

Gaydar in popular culture

Further reading

See also

Notes

Stereotype reinforcement

Some feel the idea of "gaydar" has a negative effect on the perception of sexual orientation because it reinforces social stereotypes about gay people. [1] [2]
The idea of gaydar as an ability is also complicated by homomasculinity (gay men exhibiting masculine characteristics) and the rise of the metrosexual (men with a strong aesthetic sense, regardless of sexuality).[3]

Scientific research

A study by the Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center, published in the Journal of Psychological Science found that "gay men were found to be particularly good at detecting the scent of other gay men".^[1] [4] [5]
William Lee Adams, an undergraduate at Harvard, replicated earlier work by his advisor, Dr. Nalini Ambady who is now at Tufts University. Ambady's original study published in 1999 showed that homosexuals are better at correctly identifying sexual orientation than heterosexuals from silent videos and photographs. Adams' research, started in 2004, focused exclusively on the face, the focal point of most social interaction.[6] .^[2] This finding was elaborated by Ron Smyth and colleagues in 2003. [7]

Gaydar in popular culture

★ In the ''Futurama'' episode "Love's Labors Lost in Space", Bender has what he claims is a literal gaydar - i.e., an actual electronic device that detects homosexuality. The device characterizes nearly every man it evaluates as gay.

★ In ''The Office'' episode "Gay Witch Hunt" Jim tells Michael and Dwight that they sell a gaydar device at The Sharper Image. Jim later sends a modified metal detector to Dwight, who believes it to be a genuine gaydar device. He becomes concerned when his belt buckle sets it off, thinking it is indicating that he is gay.

★ In the ''NCIS'' episode 'Iced,' Special Agent Timothy McGee "sets off gaydar on the entire northeastern seaboard" according to Special Agent Tony DiNozzo.

★ In the ''Friends'' episode "The One Where Nana Dies Twice" (originally broadcast 1994), Chandler has a discussion with a gay work colleague about rumors that Chandler is gay. The colleague says he knows that he isn't, and that he can nearly always tell whether someone is or not, adding, with heavy irony, that "his people" have "a kind of radar" to tell.

★ In the ''Ellen'' episode "The Puppy Episode" (originally broadcast April, 1997), Ellen Degeneres' character learns the concept of gaydar as part of her coming out process. She then explains it to her friends, "I must be giving off one of those vibes again. That's what we do...we give off vibrations and then we pick up the vibrations from our gaydar...so I've heard."

★ A segment on ''The Daily Show'' shows a man from England named David Eliot who created a Gaydar pager device to send vibrations to others carrying the same device. Another episode focusing on gay marriage in Massachusetts uses a fictional "gay detection device" or "gay radar" called a Homometer that provides feedback by emitting louder gay mannerisms.

★ In ''The L Word'' season one episode ''Let's Do It'', Dana acknowledges her lack of Gaydar after admitting to Alice and Shane she is unable to read the signals from people around her.

★ In the movie ''The 40 Year-Old Virgin'', Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen's characters are playing video games while in a joking argument about how they know how the other must be gay. Rudd's character says, "You know how I know you're gay?" to which Rogen's character counters, "Because you're gay, and you can tell if other people are gay?"

★ In the ongoing Internet fan-parody series, "Yu-Gi-Oh! the Abridged Series", Ryou Bakura's Millennium Ring functions as a gaydar, pointing in the direction of gay people. This parodies the tendency for owners of the millennium items to be feminine or considered by the fandom to be gay (or simply in the fan-parody series), as in the original series it pointed to millennium items. The exception is Yugi, but the gaydar points directly at his puzzle, where his alter-ego Yami (often joked or considered to be attracted to Yugi) resides.

★ In the It's Good to Be Queen episode of the series ''American Dad!'', Stan is equipped with a Gaydar watch around his wrist, which doesn't seem to be working at the time.

★ In the show ''Gay, Straight or Taken?'', a single female contestant dates three guys: one is gay, one is straight and the third has a girlfriend. Her goal is to identify the straight guy who is single in order to win a vacation with him. To do so, she must use her "Gaydar".

★ ''Saturday Night Live'' had a recurring sketch about a woman ''without'' Gaydar played by Rachel Dratch.

★ The satirical newspaper ''The Onion'' satirized the concept of gaydar in an editorial entitled "I Can Instantly Tell Whether Someone Is African-American With My Amazing 'Blackdar.'"[8]

★ In the Australian version of "Playing It Straight" the dog on the ranch was named "Gaydar"

Further reading

★ ''Gaydar'' by Donald F. Reuter (ISBN 0-609-61102-X)

★ ''The Man Who Would Be Queen'' by J. Michael Bailey (ISBN 0-309-08418-0)

★ Public Radio Program on gaydar

★ Psychology Today: Queer Eyes: Blips on the Gaydar

★ The Science of Gaydar: The new research on everything from voice pitch to hair whorl

See also

★ Biometrics

★ Homosexuality

★ Genetics and sexual orientation

★ Gaydar (website)

★ Fruit machine

★ Gay lisp

★ Metrosexual

Notes

1. Martins, Yolanda; Preti, George; Crabtree, Christina R.; Runyan, Tamar; A. Vainius, Aldona; Wysocki, Charles J. "Preference for Human Body Odors is Influenced by Gender and Sexual Orientation." Psychological Science 16 (2005): 694-701.
2. Gaudio, Rudolph (1994) “Sounding Gay: Pitch Properties in the Speech of Gay and Straight Men.” American Speech 69: 30-57.