Gaydar

I'm not talking about the gay dating site—I'm talking about the ability to 'sense' and identify whether a person is gay or not i.e. gay + radar.

Have you ever wonder why most gay people have gaydar whereas we've never heard of straight people having 'straightdar' i.e. ability to identify whether a person is straight?

I have a theory. Gay people have long been treated as something not in the norm of the society, e.g. by default, people would assume anyone is straight. The normal has always been for the straight but not for the gay. And when the society deems the norm to be straight, gay people have to find ways to look for people like them. That in turn makes them to gain the ability to observe very subtle clues. I believe if the perception towards gay and straight in the society was the other way round, the straight people would be the ones who gain their 'straightdar' and gaydar probably wouldn't exist.

I think gaydar is basically an ability developed in gay people (based on stereotypes on gay people themselves, i.e. what you think a gay person would behave like) due to human's social instinct to find a community they belong to. When not being used for finding like-minded people, I think gaydar is just really sharp observation skills.

IMHO there's some connexion between gaydar and gay people's fashion sense. Gay as we know are generally better than straight people in fashion sense and many are some of the best fashion designers. I don't think it comes by coincidence, nor it comes naturally. I would believe that by gaining gaydar, gay designers also gain sharp observation skills which in turn give them great fashion sense.

But I heard for some people, gaydar deteriorates over time. I've heard people used to be good in it lost it almost totally without apparent reasons. While I don't think one would lose its observation skills without apparent reasons, I can't find an explanation of losing gaydar.

But then again, not every gay person has gaydar. Some have never had it but probably still live a good life as a gay person.

So do you have gaydar? Anyone has already lost it? Have you ever put your gaydar in used other than finding gay people?

Posted on 16 January 2012

7 comments:

  1. tuls16/1/12 3:16 PM

    i got one but rosak sometimes! lol... how arr!??! hahahaha... i rely more on my high profile friends to detect gays if my gaydar rosak! :)

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  2. rotiboy17/1/12 7:13 PM

    @tuls hahaha sometimes rosak? try banging your head on the table to see if it works! XP Anyway I guess it doesn't matter for you lah! *wink wink* Plus you got high profile friends to rely on, can easily build a gay detection network!!

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  3. akaMike17/1/12 9:30 PM

    hahaha!!! like TULS - mine works at times. I hate it when it mulfundtions lol!!!!

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  4. savante17/1/12 10:20 PM

    There's no need to develop a straightdar when everyone else is presumed to be straight!

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  5. rotiboy18/1/12 1:12 AM

    @akaMike: Then you need to build a gay detection network like TULS loh!

    @savante: Exactly my point. Imagine if it's the other way round - everyone is presumed to be gay while straight is not the norm, don't you think they will be the one gaining straightdar instead of us gaining gaydar?

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  6. malimo25/1/12 9:05 AM

    @tuls : that's just a glitch, not rosak le, mine olso have glitch sometimes.

    gaydar is part of the gayvolution (gay evolution, have I just invented a word here?) you need to evolve to fit in order to survive. "survival to the fittest"

    no gaydar later you turn straight?

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  7. rotiboy29/1/12 10:29 PM

    @malimo I assume you're kidding? I don't think gaydar in anyway is the sole indicator of being gay or straight. Yes it's sorta like an biological (or rather psychological) evolution, but not having gaydar does not mean one is not gay, nor one needs to have gaydar to be gay.

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