A person where I work at is a man, married with one young son.
In one ear, he wears a large cubic zirconium (I believe) stud - but it is in his right ear. His left ear is unpierced.
Should I tell him what having only the right ear pierced means? What are the chances that it may deliberate?
WRS/Thû
Huh. I didn’t know that still meant something. I thought that trend was over.
I wouldn’t say anything unless you’re pretty buddy-buddy with him. He may get weirded out if he thinks you’re “accusing” him of something he isn’t (if he isn’t, that is).
It doesn’t necessarily “mean” anything (well, except that a fake diamond stud makes one as camp as Christmas. But straight people can be fagulous too.)
Most gay people don’t rely on positioning their ear rings to signal their sexuality. Most gay people are also unmarried and childless.
I’d leave the issue alone entirely, if I were you. It’s hardly ever a good idea to make personal remarks or suggestions–no matter how well-intentioned or respectful–to people you don’t really know very well.
If you and he become friends, then you can talk about stuff like this.
You mean that actually was some sort of signal for homosexuality at one point? I always thought it was just an old urban legend like catching the gay from fluoronated water or some other nonsense.
heh 
I thought, reading the thread title, you were complaining he only had one ear pierced.
How dare he. 
[btw: I’ve never heard of that custom. Doesn’t Harrison Ford has one in his right ear?]
I thought that “meaning” lost its meaning in about 1985.
If I were you I wouldn’t tell him anything. It’s really none of your business to comment on his personal appearance, unless you’re his supervisor and his earring violates written company dress code.
Besides, how do you know he doesn’t know what it “means”? His being married and having a kid isn’t relevant. How do you know he’s not bisexual? How do you know what the state of his marriage is?
Do you really believe that nobody has ever told this person what it supposedly “means?”
Yes, hurry to him and explain it. While you are at it, explain to him Where the Beef is, What happened to Webster’s real parents, Why the Soviets boycotted the olympics in LA, and why that guy in Journey decided to play air-keyboard in their video for ‘Seperate Ways’.
Maybe he’s a pirate?
Arr.
Yep, I say you open the discussion with ‘What the hell?’ and let it proceed from there.
Seriously, I only remember this as an U/L in my circles. I was 16 in 1983 when I got my ear pierced for the first time and it was all ‘which one means I’m gay? Agh! I don’t KNOW!’ thing.
Though I will say that my luck with the girls shot straight up after I got it done.
I just wanted to thank Jervoise for the new word fagulous. I’m still giggling uncontollably. Do you know how hard it is to type while doing that?
:rolleyes:
What if he had his left ear ripped off in an ugly gay bashing incident, and had it replaced with a very manly lifelike titanium alloy that cannot be pierced, leaving his right ear as the only option?
I wear a hoop in each ear to cover all possible meanings and symbolism. One of them is bound to be right.
I would only tell him if you’re both, say, fifteen.
I have my left ear pierced (I’m old school). Sometimes I’ll wear a hoop, until I do something stooopid and snag it on something, nearly ripping my earlobe off in the process. Then I go back to the stud for a while, until I get brave once again.
The ear piercing was somthing I did with the VunderKind for his 16th birthday. He wanted both pierced, and he got what he wanted…
Left, right, or both doesn’t matter anymore.
FWIW, the last time I heard of this earring thing was in junior high school, which I left in…you guessed it…1985. It probably is deliberate, but not because he’s gay. He probably does it to see how many people come up to him to “correct” him.
Yup, and the other one is bound to be left. Haw haw haw!!
Yeah, what matters now is symmetry. If you have the same number of piercings in each ear then you’re straight. if your piercings are asymmetrical you’re gay.
Or at least that’s how really really immature people think.
ALthough I used to have two per ear and one of the holes in the right one closed up so I have two left and one right, so maybe there’s something to it after all…
I’m so unhip. So Where is the Beef et.al.
To put it mildly, I dislike ear rings on guys. They usually look stupid, gross, or infeminate. But you’re better off not telling the guy anything.