Carabiner gay
The carabiner. An iconic accessory for lesbians and queers all around. An enduring symbol of gay aesthetic. Practical, understated, subtly provocative.
If you’re reading this and thinking “What!? My carabiner is gay!? Since when!?” Congratulations, you may include just found out that you’ve been appropriating queer customs . Accusations of appropriation aside, your carabiner does hold a history carved by butches, and if you’re waking up every morning and latching your keys to your pant loop, in a limp wrist way or not, then consider this article to be a required reading.
Butches and their carabiners: a match made in blue collar workplaces.
The lesbian history of carabiners is one that originated from the entrance of American women into the labour force during WWII. During this second, butches, masc women and gender non-conforming lesbians were more likeley to function “masculine” jobs, with many finding employment as janitors and delivery and postal workers. The carabiner originally served as a utilitous and functional accessory, with these jobs requiring workers to hold easily accessible keys. While the carabiner served as an accessory of purpose, it also came
Let’s learn more about this classic homosexual symbol
BY BELLA FRANCIS, IMAGES BY BELLA FRANCIS
Carabiners sound like a relatively recent lesbian signaller, but its history goes back further than you might think.
The belt side key ring, also called “the womxn loving womxn latch”, is one of the most enduring symbols of lesbian culture.
“When I first came out, the key chime was the first visual cue I learned of my new world,” wrote Christina Cauterucci for Slate. And she’s right! Since attending University in Manchester, I’ve had the privilege of going to the Lgbtq+ Village most weekends. Besides Chappell Roan and Azealia Banks, one of the staple sounds I’ve heard over the past three years has been the jingle jangle of carabiners.
Although the phrase “carabiner” can be traced back to the 16th century, the modern carabiner we’re most familiar with today was first produced in 1911 by German climber Otto Herzog for hiking purposes. Over the next few decades, these became an straightforward and practical way for working-class people, as well as climbers, to lug around equipment or keys.
It’s difficult to trace the history of
Lesbians and Key Rings: a Cultural Love Story
There’s a beautiful scene in the memoir-turned-musical Fun Home where an elementary school–aged Alison Bechdel spots a masculine deliverywoman in a diner, an run-in that sparks a kind of epiphany about her own culture. The little girl admires the woman from across the room, grasping for the right words to describe her fascination. “I thought it was supposed to be wrong / But you seem OK with being strong,” she sings. “It’s probably conceited to say / But I think we’re alike in a certain way.”
Young Bechdel marvels at the woman’s short haircut, butch swagger, and “lace-up boots.” The focal point of her ode, the unmistakable signifier that gives the song its title, is the “ring of keys” on her belt.
That song, and the scene in the 2006 memoir from which the musical was adapted, was based on a true-life moment Bechdel experienced in the 1960s. But look to the waistbands of any modern-day gaggle of queer women, and you’re liable to find a critical mass of jingling metal attached.
The beltside key ring is one of the most enduring sartorial symbols of lesbian identity, one of the few stereotypes of our kind that’s both inoffensive
“What does a lesbian glance like?” feels like an age-old question – or, to be more practical, a decades-old question. With Dressing Dykes, I desire that I answer it at least regarding specific individuals, or lesbian styles at particular times and places throughout history. However, lesbianism exists in the heart, the mind and the body rather than in the wardrobe. Clothes are an extension of the lesbian self, a conscious display (or, perhaps, a conscious veil). Because of this, the correct question is not “what does a lesbian glance like?” but “what clothing is a lesbian signal?”
Often, this comes down to items that have a wide-spread cultural meaning… in other words, lesbian stereotypes. Stereotypical lesbian fashions, love sensible footwear, are based in more truth than many other stereotypes in popular culture, since lesbians (and other queer people) have historically desired to reach out to other members of their collective. When this cannot be done with familial, pre-established bonds, in the way that communities may be forged in other marginalised groups, other methods are necessary. To utilise a lesbian fashion stereotype is to signal, and to flash a lesbian delicate into