ignoring someone’s hints at queerness, no matter how subtle, is literally homophobic and i wish people would stop. queer coding exists for a reason and not everyone is in a position to just come out screaming from the rooftops.
assuming that harry or louis “hint” at queerness by their actions is so gross lmao !!!!
literally….what the fuck, “queer coding” is basically you saying using stereotypes to pick out someone’s queerness is okay, which is wrong. It’s actually very homophobic to judge someone’s sexuality based on stereotypes.
a) this post wasn’t about larry till you made it about them b) queer people have been using stereotypical behaviour to spot each other since the beginning of time because in a world where homophobia exists it is essential to queer survival
here’s the thing: there is a very important difference between stereotyping and reading someone’s queer-coded behavior.
when you’re talking in terms of power in the context of social interactions, a lot of what makes stereotyping negative lies in application and intent. a lot of what we consider as negative stereotyping, when we criticize it across media portrayals, social encounters, etc., is negative bc it plays out, either consciously or unconsciously, with the intent to limit a group to a very small space of imagined representation, which often writes off the very real experiences and struggles of that group. with sexuality, bc of how it gets conflated with gender, overreliance on stereotypes about it become damaging in that they create a perception that certain things “make someone queer,” which ignores the fact that there is no one mold for being/acting queer.
THAT BEING SAID, queer-coding is something a bit different, namely in that it’s grounded in different motivations. when it comes from lgbtq+ people, queer-coding is equally about self-presentation and self-recognition. it’s using your own experiences and familiarity with the culture and history of the lgbtq+ community to subtly mark yourself as queer, often in ways that pass under the radar for anyone unfamiliar with those symbols, but that other people who are also of that community will recognize and respond to in affirmative ways. on the flip side, it’s also about providing that recognition and affirmation for others who you think could be doing the same thing. it’s based on cultural associations, which are in some sense based on stereotypes (or things that have become stereotypes, since stereotypes do change), but which in most cases are based on repeated use of imagery and shared artifacts that have been given new meaning as they have become part of the common culture lgbtq+ people have built for themselves.
so for example, saying a guy must be gay bc he’s into musicals is gross bc it’s based on a negative application of stereotypes about male homosexuality (as vain, as effeminate, as overdramatic divas, etc.) that have been used to marginalize and ridicule how gay men are socially and culturally perceived. (which isn’t to invalidate any guys who are gay and into musical theatre bc there are a lot of them and it’s a valid interest to have, regardless of sexuality.)
otoh reading a guy as not straight, even if he hasn’t explicitly told you how he identifies his sexuality, bc he frequently and even exclusively comments on other guys in a sexual and/or romantic manner, bc he wears a lot of rainbows, bc his favorite movie is maurice, etc. isn’t ~stereotyping or “using stereotypes to pick out someone’s queerness.” it’s paying attention to the composite picture of someone’s personailty and identity that they are putting forth and recognizing that their sexuality may be a part of that. it’s doing your best to respect who they are showing you they are so that they don’t feel pressured to explicitly tell their sexuality to every person they meet, in the same way straight people aren’t expected to ever identify themselves as straight, bc heteronormativity means we’re conditioned to read every behavior as coded to indicate heterosexuality.
so yes, queer-coding technically engages with stereotypes. but it’s also a fundamental part of queer experience and survival, precisely bc it allows lgbtq+ people to find others who may potentially be like them without risking complete self-exposure in a world where heteronormativity and the homophobic reinforcement of it are still very real.
