# Did the Sailor Suit look Gay before the Village People? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 29, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642 "2009-07-29T05:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/21 "2009-07-29T15:54:19Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Long before the Village People became popular, it was pretty much a common stereotype that Gay men were more likely to sign up for the Navy than any other branch of the military. Doesn’t this ultimately trace back to the fact that sailors in pre-coed navies, by the nature of their trade, necessarily spent more time isolated in all-male groups away from contact with women (i.e., at sea)? ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/22 "2009-07-29T16:02:22Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > We didn’t think the dress whites made us look gay, just childish. I wonder how much blame can be put on Shirley Temple for this? As far as the “gay” look I wonder if that comes from it’s use in old musicals where guys in sailor suits danced and sang all over the stage? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/23 "2009-07-29T16:16:51Z")
> [@Skylark](#): > > In my experience, being a Sailor (in a non-Navy town) can go further than, say, being a Soldier. “Oooh, a Sailor!”, has that exotic connotation to it. Hmmm. Yes, you are right. I think that is part of the mystique. Sailor go to places, exotic, interesting places, and have interesting adventures\*. \*Not really. My husband calls himself “a glorified truck driver”. Everything is computerized, codified, standardized, nothing is left to chance. Plus people do not go sailing for months or years on end without their family knowing their fate. I speak with my husband on the phone and communicate with him by email on a daily basis. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/24 "2009-07-29T16:57:01Z")
Yeah, but that wasn’t always so. I did a deployment in the days before individual sailor email accounts and before Sailorphone. Once during that cruise they ran a radio patch through to a MARS station in the States, and I was able to talk to my folks over essentially ham radio. It was hell reminding my mom to say “over” so the operator could switch the circuit over. Shortly after this I got engaged, and during workups my fiancee needed to contact me for some reason and sent me a telegram - Western Union actually got it to the Navy who dutifully transmitted it to the ship. This marks the only time I’ve received one, and I’m probably the last American on these boards who has. Things are better now - when I’ve gone underway as a contractor I’ve had much better connectivity than I ever had as an active-duty sailor. BTW, the best thing about the crackerjacks were the pants. Hell to get into and out of (they had 13 buttons!) but they were, shall we say, flattering. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/25 "2009-07-29T17:11:35Z")
Well, duh, not only do women (and some men) love a man in uniform, it’s associated with [something sweet with a prize inside](http://www.crackerjack.com/home.htm)! Also, comments on the relative manliness of a sailor’s uniform is not routinely welcomed by same, to say the least. My dad, who was in the Navy in WWII, once, while quite drunk, commented on the little ball on top of a French sailor’s hat. Unsurprisingly, the French sailor was not at all amused. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/26 "2009-07-29T17:15:03Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’m trying to work out in my head how the users positioned themsleves. Come to think about it - I can’t figure it out either. 😕 Damn thing must have come with an instruction manual. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/27 "2009-07-29T19:09:54Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’m trying to work out in my head how the users positioned themsleves. My guess: one sits on the chair, one kneels on the provided padding. I assume the sitter (the blowee, if you will) could position his feet however he liked in the various foot rest looking things. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/28 "2009-07-29T19:45:48Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > We knew about the gay stigma attached to us, but we also knew that in reality, homosexuality was more common among the Marines. We just chalked it up on the long ledger of civilian cluelesness of military reality. I don’t know about that, are these guys from the Navy like it says, or the Marines? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCSZuvKl\_uA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCSZuvKl_uA) ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/29 "2009-07-29T21:28:31Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Yeah, but that wasn’t always so. I did a deployment in the days before individual sailor email accounts and before Sailorphone. Yeah, but we weren’t even born yet. J/K, we are 39. When we met 15 years ago we kept in touch by fax (he sent me faxes), and I saw him every weekend (it was a short route). He’s only have email in the last 8 years after he went to work for his current employer. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/30 "2009-07-29T21:42:04Z")
The sailor suit is not always displayed as silly or ghey: [link](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://z.about.com/d/history1900s/1/0/j/T/wwiip67.jpg&imgrefurl=http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blywwiip67.htm&usg=__Xcytl8qwxcmY5BiI_2wr9Pl-lqE=&h=472&w=325&sz=49&hl=en&start=30&tbnid=dXPB2ENuUHGmtM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Join%2Bthe%2Bnavy%2522%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20) I think the village people added to a certain stereotype, but that stereotype wasn’t always the dominant one in the past. ---
**Author:** ![kirk1168](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@kirk1168](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirk1168)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/31 "2009-07-30T01:41:49Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > I have noticed many of the world’s naval forces China, Russia, Japan have a version of that uniform style than the other military branches. The world’s Navies really do stand quite apart in style from the others, why? Because they’re all based on the (British) Royal Navy uniform from the 19th century, when the RN was far-and-away the most powerful force on the seas. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal\_Navy\_uniform](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Navy_uniform) ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/32 "2009-07-30T02:39:39Z")
I remember during Fleet Week in San Francisco, my sister commenting that the sailor uniforms seemed quite swooshie. I pointed out that they are snug in the butt. She took a second look at a passing sailor and responded, “Oh! Oh, my… I think you’re right.” So, not necessarily gay, but enough not-gay to attract a hetero girl. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642/33 "2009-07-30T12:37:31Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I wonder how much blame can be put on Shirley Temple for this? > > As far as the “gay” look I wonder if that comes from it’s use in old musicals where guys in sailor suits danced and sang all over the stage? Which reminds me of a thread I started a while back about the [prevalence of sailors in musicals.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=484701) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-sailor-suit-look-gay-before-the-village-people/504642.md?page=1)