# What is "gay face"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 19, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217 "2012-03-19T12:43:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/1 "2012-03-19T12:43:10Z")
So I was reading about Jason Russell masturbating in public and people in the comments imply he is actually gay and has a “gay face”. So the dude I dunno looks like a aspiring actor and is definitely in shape, so what the hell are people talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/2 "2012-03-19T13:31:41Z")
No idea. Maybe they have something like [this](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-myJCzzSO95c/Tx6iw_xj7OI/AAAAAAAAces/HpaoPzI5VZQ/s1600/frankie-howerd-pic-rex-256328675.jpg) in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/3 "2012-03-19T13:44:17Z")
It’s best not to contemplate the significance of most internet news article comments, it’ll only get you down. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/4 "2012-03-19T16:18:21Z")
You can’t beat [Urban Dictionary](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gay%20face) for stuff like this. While you’re there, consider giving a thumbs up for my definition of [smooth-brained](http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=drastic_quench) - an insult that needs to make a comeback. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/5 "2012-03-19T16:24:37Z")
Ted Haggard ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/6 "2012-03-19T16:52:57Z")
Can’t define it, but I know it when I see it. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/7 "2012-03-19T17:06:26Z")
Got little bitty eyes that are not sunken or squinty is my guess. [Jim J. Bullock](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0120160/) looks like that. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/8 "2012-03-19T17:14:13Z")
IME when the “gay face” in question belongs to a male it’s generally gorgeous.\* _sigh_ \*Not that I find Jason Russell attractive. Ew. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/9 "2012-03-19T17:45:13Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Ted Haggard That’s who I thought of when I read this thread’s title. Don’t know what it is exactly, but that guy’s face is gayer than a sperm on a mustache. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/10 "2012-03-19T18:18:10Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > You can’t beat [Urban Dictionary](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gay%20face) for stuff like this. > > While you’re there, consider giving a thumbs up for my definition of [smooth-brained](http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=drastic_quench) - an insult that needs to make a comeback. NERD! 🙂 You need to keep up to the normal UD caliber. Namely, you should’ve put: “Smooth [brain](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=brain) is wut Steve Jones’ mom gives me after I shave down there hurhurhur.” I’d think that if the face is buried in (another) man’s crotch, it is more likely that it is a gay face. If the face is buried in his own crotch, that’s just skilled. I don’t know who this guy is, but Googling him: FYI there is a fine, difficult to notice line between [fabuously gay and ironically hipster](http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/03/16/kony-2012-activist-reportedly-found-roaming-streets-nearly-naked-after/). Also, if I ever got THAT drunk, I certainly wouldn’t be able to get it up enough to masturbate, let alone in public. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/11 "2012-03-19T19:01:59Z")
I think its the way the muscles right around the nostrils are tensed. As if the nstrils are being held permanently flared, or a half-disgust face was being disguised as a smile. I see it in all of the linked pics. That said, the quote from his wife would tend to put the lie to any hypothesis we can muster. . . but I’m old-fashioned that way. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/12 "2012-03-19T20:22:38Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I think its the way the muscles right around the nostrils are tensed. As if the nstrils are being held permanently flared, or a half-disgust face was being disguised as a smile. I see it in all of the linked pics. > > That said, the quote from his wife would tend to put the lie to any hypothesis we can muster. . . but I’m old-fashioned that way. Which quote from his wife? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/13 "2012-03-19T20:36:27Z")
I’ve thought [Marcus](http://www.truthwinsout.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/marcus_bachmann1.png)[Bachmann](http://www.mediaite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Marcus-BachmannX390.jpg)has a pretty gay face. Very feminine expressions on a man’s face. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/14 "2012-03-19T20:44:32Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I’ve thought [Marcus](http://www.truthwinsout.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/marcus_bachmann1.png)[Bachmann](http://www.mediaite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Marcus-BachmannX390.jpg)has a pretty gay face. Very feminine expressions on a man’s face. Haha. That picture is the very definition of gayface. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/15 "2012-03-19T20:53:14Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Haha. That picture is the very definition of gayface. There’s actually two; a link under each name, but they didn’t separate very well. I’d say ol’ Marcus could be a gayface model. ---
**Author:** ![Sethcrzygy86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Sethcrzygy86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sethcrzygy86)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/16 "2012-03-19T20:54:51Z")
Daniel Radcliff ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/17 "2012-03-19T21:22:07Z")
I heard the phrase used in a movie on TV only a couple of nights ago. In _Green Zone_ a reluctant subordinate asks Matt Damon’s character how he knows that they are not being lead into an ambush. He admits that he doesn’t and then, looking like a man used to being obeyed, says: \* “Get your fucking gay face on.”\* ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/18 "2012-03-19T21:51:35Z")
Gay face is absolutely real, and it’s been scientifically proven (in both homosexual men and women). Cites: [Sexual Orientation Perception Involves Gendered Facial Cues](http://psp.sagepub.com/content/36/10/1318.short) > [@](#): > > Perceivers can accurately judge a face’s sexual orientation, but the perceptual mechanisms mediating this remain obscure. [Female sexual orientation is perceived accurately, rapidly, and automatically from the face and its features](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103109001838) > [@](#): > > Whereas previous work has shown that male sexual orientation can be accurately and rapidly perceived from the human face and its individual features, no study has examined the judgment of female sexual orientation. To fill this gap, the current work examined the accuracy, speed, and automaticity of judgments of female sexual orientation from the face and from facial features. Study 1 showed that female sexual orientation could be accurately judged from the face and from just eyes without brows and limited to the outer canthi. Study 2 then examined the speed and efficiency of these judgments, showing that judgments of the faces following very brief, near subliminal (40 ms) exposures were significantly better than chance guessing. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/19 "2012-03-19T22:39:34Z")
> [@Sethcrzygy86](#): > > Daniel Radcliff 😕😕 ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-gay-face/616217/20 "2012-03-20T02:42:54Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > Which quote from his wife? Sorry about that. I thoguht it was one of the above links, but I guess I got there from the picture. And now I can’t find it, but here;s another source: [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/jason-russell-man-behind-viral-kony-2012-video-drugs-alcohol-detained-cops-wife-article-1.1041359?localLinksEnabled=false](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/jason-russell-man-behind-viral-kony-2012-video-drugs-alcohol-detained-cops-wife-article-1.1041359?localLinksEnabled=false)