I suspect that if it is true that a disproportionate number of men who work as interior designers are gay, there is some amount of a self-fulfilling prophecy at work here. A young gay man who is considering interior design as a career may find it more attractive because it’s a “safe” place to be gay, while a young straight man may shy away because he doesn’t want to be perceived as gay. And once they’ve settled into the career, men (whether gay or straight) in the industry may feel more comfortable behaving in stereotypically feminine or “gay” manners than, say, a lawyer would - it’s more expected, therefore more accepted.
Blame Cristopher Lowell and the Queer Eye crew. They started the popularization of interior design for the middle/ lower middle class. Before then, the wives did it, or couples agreed on furniture, while the men painted etc…
Reminds me of that scene in Mighty Aphrodite (1995):
Lenny (Woody Allen): Ever think about what you want to be when you grow up?
Max (his young adopted son): I don’t know. Maybe an interior decorator.
Lenny: What?!
Max: Just kidding, just kidding.
Lenny: Don’t kid. Come on.
Totally biased personal opinion that hasn’t been thought through very much:
What do interior designers do? They come into your home, go through your stuff, move shit around, throw things out, etc. It’s a very intrusive and personal and violating thing to some. It could be psychologically and subconsciously very threatening to have your home “redesigned” by a stranger.
Effeminate men are generally viewed as less threatening, especially by women. Customers are probably more comfortable, even if just subconsciously, with gay men redesigning their home.
Shit, I’m only in my thirties, but I don’t have any male relatives or friends who were into decorating or interior design much at all. All of our homes are being revamped on a regular basis, for sure, but this seems to always be entirely initiated and planned by the wife / girlfriend - us guys would typically not change a thing, although we’re grudginly pleased about the end result most of the time. We just don’t care about, or even notice, most of the stuff our wives rave about regarding decorating our homes.
Intuitively, I can only associate interior design with femininity, however biased and narrow a view that might be.
it goes back well before that. The Cheers episode I referenced was from the '80s. In a nutshell, Norm (George Wendt) is painting someone’s apartment and shows he has a knack for decorating. He decides to go into business as that but has to pretend he’s gay in order to have any credibility.
Anecdotally, has anyone here ever met a straight male interior designer?
I know a guy who billed himself (now retired) as an interior designer, but was more into the construction end (drywall, paint, etc) end of the biz than the pillow tossing. He’s as straight as you can get.
It’s usually something that women are interested in. That’s all there is to it. Typically male, and a woman does it = possibly lesbian, typically female and a man does it = possibly gay. Both stereotypes are becoming less common, especially for women in “men”'s jobs.
(Cooking is the exception in the professional field).
If you ever watch any home improvement or ‘relocation’ shows, it’s usually the woman in a couple who’s more interested in designing the interior of the house. They’re equally interested about the cost and the location, but almost always it’s the woman talking about what colour the room could be. If the man does, it’s after a conversation started by the woman.
Same here. Well, I don’t agree with the last paragraph, but my experience is the same - among my friends, who are really not conservative or making any conspicuous attempt to live by gender norms, it’s pretty much always the woman who likes interior decorating the the man who will come home and take three days to notice there’s a new lamp right next to him.
Church music is a field that has become gay by default and proud of it. There aren’t even that many female church organists.
I have no cite, but I can see an argument that it’s an evolutionary thing–men traditionally went out and hunted, while women stayed behind and decorated the cave with nice throw rocks and wove blankets out of moss. Things went on from there.
Have a look at this celebrity interior designer…
He’s just celebrated his 20th wedding anniversary with his **wife **
Yes, she did, once, but as she walked into the room, her face was covered by flying food as there was a food fight going on. I believe it was Thanksgiving dinner.