# Fag tags - purpose?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 30, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738 "2003-01-30T22:27:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bfdelorme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bfdelorme)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/1 "2003-01-30T22:27:51Z")
I’m sure this has been asked before, but an interesting issue came up today at work - what exactly is the purpose of a fag tag (the little tag on the back of your shirt)? One possible explanation was to hang your shirt on a hook, but that makes no sense to me.
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### Author:  [@Khadro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadro)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/2 "2003-01-30T22:39:33Z")
I use my “fag tags” to attach my superhero cape when I go out at night. I find the capes that come around your shoulders and clasp in the front are too restrictive, but you tend to not feel like a superhero at all unless you have a cape to swish about.
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### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/3 "2003-01-30T23:00:10Z")
To hang up your shirt? Why didn’t they just sew in a hanger into the sholders of the shirt…it’d be less OBVIOUS! - Jinx 😃
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/4 "2003-01-30T23:22:09Z")
::raises hand::
I have no idea what you’re talking about, unless you’re talking about the tag on the inside of every shirt, sweater, etc. But I don’t think you are, since their purpose is obvious.
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### Author:  [@vertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertigo)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/5 "2003-01-30T23:34:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Dooku \*
> \*\*::raises hand::
>
> I have no idea what you’re talking about, unless you’re talking about the tag on the inside of every shirt, sweater, etc. But I don’t think you are, since their purpose is obvious. \*\*
He/She is referring to a small loop that is located on the _outside_ of a shirt, right where the pleat starts at the bottom of the yoke (the part that covers the shoulders). It is used to hang your shirt up, like in a locker, and is popular with pin-point oxford shirts. All the rage with the preppy set in the '80s.
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### Author:  [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/6 "2003-01-30T23:38:23Z")
I know the things you’re talking about, and remember them being called that too. I have no idea what they’re for, but a word of advice: You won’t endear yourself to many hear using terms like “fag tags”. many here are rather sensitive about terms like that, even when the intent is benign.
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### Author:  [@jeel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeel)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/7 "2003-01-30T23:38:42Z")
And for a minute I thought he was talking about rainbow stickers.
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### Author:  [@mazzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazzer)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/8 "2003-01-30T23:43:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jeel \*
> \*\*And for a minute I thought he was talking about rainbow stickers. \*\*
Please do no make jokes about the slurs in our language.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/9 "2003-01-30T23:48:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by vertigo \*
> It is used to hang your shirt up, like in a locker
Lands End used to (may still) call them “locker loops.”
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### Author:  [@jeel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeel)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/10 "2003-01-30T23:49:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by chriszarate \*
> \*\*Please do no make jokes about the slurs in our language. \*\*
some would argue that “fag” is hardly a slur in our language…but I’ll be sure to be more “P.C.” in the future.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/11 "2003-01-31T00:04:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by vertigo \*
> \*\*…and is popular with pin-point oxford shirts. All the rage with the preppy set in the '80s. \*\*
Ah, _now_ I understand. I don’t have to wear button-down shirts unless I’m going to a wedding, so it didn’t dawn on me. My WAG - to hang them in lockers at the gym for when business people go work out during their lunch hour and don’t want to wrinkle the work shirt .
FTR, I have never in my life heard this term. Other than being immature and offensive, why would that loop be called a “fag tag”? I fail to see the homosexual connotation.
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### Author:  [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/12 "2003-01-31T00:27:36Z")
The “fag tag” thing is, I think, a Jr High phenomenon, at least that’s where I first encountered it. Basically in the same category as “left/right ear piercing means you’re gay” or “wearing green on Thursdays means you’re gay” just a cruel Jr High taunt, with the added bonus that you could catch people by hooking a finger through the tag. But since those little tags on the back of shirts don’t really have another convenient, common name, it tends to stick in your mind.
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### Author:  [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/13 "2003-01-31T00:31:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Dooku \*
> **I don’t have to wear button-down shirts unless I’m going to a wedding, so it didn’t dawn on me.**
You would wear a button-down shirt to a wedding?
Heartless Philistine.
It’s the baby-blue ruffled tux shirt or nothing…
or the “tuxedo t-shirt” and high-tops.
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### Author:  [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/14 "2003-01-31T01:29:36Z")
I can’t find a history with a quick google search, but I always associate the shirts with musical groups in the 50s and 60s. Groups like the Four Freshman, etc. are the first ones I remember wearing the things. Personally that’s the only kind of shirt I buy for dress-up and primarily they are on button-down oxfords.
Bob
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### Author:  [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/15 "2003-01-31T02:51:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Melandry \*
> **The “fag tag” thing is, I think, a Jr High phenomenon**
In the middle of the sixties, in the middle of Wyoming, they were known as “fairy loops”. And some people collected them.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/16 "2003-01-31T03:48:44Z")
I’ve never heard the term ‘fag tag’ before. The things you learn on the SDMB!
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/17 "2003-01-31T04:46:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RM Mentock \*
> \*\*In the middle of the sixties, in the middle of Wyoming, they were known as “fairy loops”. And some people collected them. \*\*
My grandma also called them fairy loops (or angel loops, I don’t remember)
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### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/18 "2003-01-31T05:05:38Z")
I always heard them called “fag tags.” Well, sometimes “fruit loops.”
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/19 "2003-01-31T05:17:21Z")
We always called them Com’eers, as in “Come here” you’d say as you grabbed the person by the loop and dragged them in the direction you were going. Never heard the other terms.
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### Author:  [@Stan\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Doubt)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fag-tags-purpose/151738/20 "2003-01-31T05:23:43Z")
(Don’t you pull my) “Shirt Loop” was a song by a Boston Punk rock band called DMZ, precursor to the Lyres.
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