How should we understand what are we seeing?

What are we really seeing?
posted by Tony Whitfield

What Are "Gay Semiotics"?
http://www.gaysemiotics.net/semiotics/4565701905

Semiotics "involves the study not only of what we refer to as 'signs' in everyday speech, but of anything which 'stands for' something else. In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and objects. Contemporary semioticians study signs not in isolation but as part of semiotic 'sign-systems' (such as a medium or genre). They study how meanings are made and how reality is represented." (Chandler, 2007, p.2)

'Gay semiotics' refers to the processes and signs which make homosexuality manifest and which render it potentially visible to others. Or, in everyday language: the ways we 'read' someone as potentially  gay or lesbian. However, gay semiotics is also concerned with the ways in which 'the homosexual' has been used as a 'sign' throughout history: a symbolic figure which might tell us something about cultural values, fears and expectations.

This website will explore the signs and symbols which gay men and lesbians have used in order to signal their homosexuality to others, as well as the historical search for bodily marks and signs which would identify a distinctively gay or lesbian body. It will cover subcultural in-group codes such as those outlined by Fischer (1977) and Baker (2002), cultural stereotypes of the gay man or lesbian, and the medical and scientific concern with distinctive identifying features by which gay 'bodies' could be recognised.

For more information on semiotics, see Daniel Chandler's book (below) and website: http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/Documents/S4B/

REFERENCES

Baker, P. (2002). Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men. London: Routledge.

Chandler, D. (2007). Semiotics: The Basics (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.

Fischer, H. (1977).  Gay Semiotics ♂: A Photographic Study of Visual Coding among Homosexual Men. San Francisco: NFS Press.

Qcc Home Gay Semioticsby Hal Fischer © 1977 Signifiers Essay Archetypal Media Images Fetishes > Street Fashions Addendum Bibliography	STREET FASHIONS STREET FASHION BASIC GAY STREET FASHION JOCK Figure 19 Figure 20 STREET FASHION FORTIES FUNK STREET FASHION HIPPIE Figure 21 Figure 22 STREET FASHION UNIFORM STREET FASHION LEATHER Figure 23 Figure 24